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Ann Arbor . com website

The Ann Arbor News (in Ann Arbor, MI of course) recently announced it’s closure. After 174 years, the Ann Arbor News could not see a way out of economic difficulties and will be relaunching as an online media company — AnnArbor.com. But this post isn’t about the closure… for information on that check out:

• AnnArbor.com
• The News to Fold in July
• Why We Grieve the Ann Arbor News

This post is on why I do not grieve the Ann Arbor News closure.

To be in business for 174 years is truly an amazing feat, and congratulations is due. Of course, the business became part of Mlive.com and was more of a conglomerate lately than a truly local paper.

This weekend, Yeni and I went to Meijer’s (the local supermarket) twice (long story). Both times we entered Meijer’s, we were greeted by two salesmen in a booth selling subscriptions to the Ann Arbor News. The approach was that one individual would stand in the entrance way and ask you to talk with him. When you said “No, thank you.” (like I did) he continued his pitch, and his style was effective — many elderly people were signing up for new subscriptions.

Businesses can and will fail. It’s the nature of, well, it’s the nature of business. Surely we can feel sadness for the persons who will lose their jobs and we can also feel sadness for the closure of a local institution, but to me, I feel more of a loss for the new subscribers I saw this weekend.

Traditionally, the elderly do not get their news online. I feel that selling subscriptions “hard” over the weekend for a business announcing it’s closure on Monday is in poor taste. And sadly, sometimes the last taste in your mouth is how you remember the meal.

I asked The Ann Arbor News what would happen to these new subscribers. They said:

“You’ll keep getting the paper as you do through July. We’re still working out what happens after that. You won’t lose what you paid though.”

To me, if they want my support, they’ll issue immediate refunds to anyone that bought a subscription this month. Full and immediate refund.

But, as Dennis Miller would say… That’s just my opinion.

Dealing with Ann Arbor’s Downtown Development Authority (the A2DDA) definitely elicits an emotional response. Sadly, the happy emotions did not make the cut. Anyway, the experience finds me recollecting some of my favorite government quotes…

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. — Thomas Jefferson

The point to remember is that what the government gives it must first take away. — John S. Caldwell

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid. — Benjamin Franklin

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. — Thomas Jefferson

I am for doing good to the poor, but…I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed…that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. — Benjamin Franklin

It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority. — Benjamin Franklin

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. — Benjamin Franklin

Never trust a government that doesn’t trust its own citizens with guns. — Benjamin Franklin

Once upon a time, government budgets were balanced, our money was sound, the streets were safe, and taxes imposed by all levels of government took less than 10% of our income. — Harry Browne

We’re not playing the Pyramid here, but wouldn’t that be great? Man, I miss good 70’s game shows. Give me the Pyramid and Match Game and I’m happy as can be. Anyway…

Benjamin Franklin

I’ve always liked Mr. Franklin. Some think he’s the only non-president on money… but those people probably think Mr. Hamilton was once a president. Anyway, Benjamin Franklin is perhaps my favorite American in history. I love his quotes and many of his thoughts can guide us still today.

Today’s the following Benjamin Franklin quote comes to mind:

It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.

Which brings us to… Read the rest of this entry »

Ann Arbor DDA, you massively fail. If you were a ship, you’d be the titanic…

Can you believe in today’s world that a government agency would conspire and discuss the control of public information? What if that information was a top secret as… parking space availability?

I’ve posted an article on VoIP Tech Chat detailing the Ann Arbor DDA doing just that. My response to them is at the end… Please enjoy.

Read the article on VoIP Tech Chat

I ranted today about YET ANOTHER security breach at the University of Florida (Go Gators). It’s a decent rant:

http://www.voiptechchat.com/tech/245/university-of-florida-security-strikes-out/

I like ranting now and then

Heard about Motrin Moms?

So Motrin (yeah, the pain reliever) just a little headache today courtesy of Twitter. They launched a new ad campaign targeting the pains of moms… however… the campaign did not sit well. Not well at all.

Mothers took offense to the add (perhaps the claims that carrying a baby is in fashion now) and posted complaints on twitter. Motrin ended up blogging an apology:

McNeil Meets Twitter – We Hear You

November 17th, 2008

By Kathy Widmer, Vice President of Marketing, McNeil Consumer Healthcare

This weekend, a lot was said about Motrin on Twitter and in the blogosphere. Unfortunately, it was not the kind of conversation that we here at McNeil had hoped to be at the center of.

For those who haven’t been following this, it all began when we ran an advertisement online over the weekend that talked about babywearing – which is a term that we used to describe carrying a child in a sling or wrap.

It was meant to engender sympathy and appreciation for all that parents do for their kids, but did so through an attempt at humor that missed the mark and many moms found offensive.

Now as you can imagine, we certainly didn’t mean to offend moms through our advertising. As a mom of three girls, I understand many of the comments made and agree that we know what’s best for our kids and for ourselves.

On behalf of McNeil, I’m sorry if you found this advertisement insulting. We are are in the process of removing it from our website. Unfortunately, it will take longer for us to remove this advertisement from magazines as several are currently on newsstands and in distribution.

One bright spot is that we have learned through this process – in particular, the importance of paying close attention to the conversations that are taking place online. It has also brought home the importance of taking a broader look at what we say and how it may be interpreted

My take? Very interesting on how Twitter can create quick impact… now it’s time to move on to something better… like the economy, Darfur, domestic violence, or anything.

Controversial Motrin Moms Commerical on You Tube

GAINESVILLE, FL — So for the last few weeks, I’ve been working hard to get the house “ready to sell.” With the help of Orlando, Linda, and Richard (aka J4 Cruisers), the kitchen, master bedroom, and living room have been painted. When no wood flooring was available to repair the living room I had two options — (a) replace the entire wood floor (over 1000 sq ft) or (b) carpet the living room.

I chose option B; and then replaced the carpet in all bedrooms as well. Now all carpeting in the home match; which is nice. There’s a bunch of clean-up left, as well as touching up any wall that needs it. Actually, the touch-ups require a repaint since the color of the paint is slightly darker.

I’ve pressure washed most of the house and need to finish that up and maybe even give it another quick clean.

The goal is to rent a trailer on Thursday, load it up on Friday, and then head to Ann Arbor on Saturday.

Yellow Crowbar, Utility Knife…

Punk bands from the 80’s?

Spackle, Measuring Fee…

Things you bought at Home Depot

And we have a winner.

Home Depot has carpet marked significantly lower than my previous estimate. They are running a 199 whole home installation (plus 15 bucks to move furniture)… and promised to have it done before next Friday. I’m as optimistic as life allows.

Now it’s off to Larry’s Subs to join Mr. Armstrong in a late night meal.

Did I mention how into Twitter I am lately? Crazy.

First… let me tell you how big the Spiders are in Gainesville. They are what I like to call HFS big… (Holy Fucking Shit Big). Except for Peter Parker, I’ve never liked spiders… but at least growing up they were managable annoyances. Spiders in the South are large and in-charge. They are huge… beyond big… they have zip codes and in some counties can even vote. Anyway, the point here is (1) not liking spiders + (2) HFS big = scared Fred.

So last night, Mr. Big Spider trespasses into the home and decides that contrary to Darwin, survival is not important. Only importance is to run quickly to Fred. Well, knowing what you know about Fred and spiders, the reaction was that Fred quickly left his chair and went for a book. But, alas, the move has left Fred bookless. With no immediate weapons available, I did start to panic. (Digression: Why switch from 3rd to 1st person? Why not, it’s a rant y’all) Anyways… oh yes… weapons. So, I thought the shotgun was overkill… but I actually had to think about it. In the meantime, Mr. Aggressive Spider (yes his first name was Aggressive) decided he’d run to my new location.

Well that was that. The fight or flight response kicks in — and let’s face it… fatty isn’t flighty. So needless to say, Crocs are not the best weapon against spiders. Their grooved sole allows the spider to do whatever ninja moves they know to avoid death. So, I switched to jump and smear. And thus, Mr. Aggressive Spider is no more. Yeni wasn’t happy the spider was killed (apparently they are good luck?) but I explained my beliefs… if a spider is outside, no problem. Inside? Penalty for trespass is death. But, I’m sure he left many children to revenge his death, so… there’s always that. But today, at least one small victory is mine.

Speaking of not winning, the carpet estimate yesterday was around $1700. And… at $1700 I’d have to remove the rest of the living room wood floor myself. Ugh. So, today I’m headed to the Home Depot to see what kind of specials they have.

Well, there are three main rooms that need to be painted. The Kitchen, the Master Bedroom, and the Living Room.

The Kitchen was mostly a second coat. The lovely former real estate agent had her “handy man” paint the room, however they did at best what I’d call “half assed” work. Half-assed at best. So, I started painted and the realization of my painting skills became immediately apparent. I do not paint well. I do not paint well… at all.

Orlando and Linda came over and — BAM! It was like watching my parents paint. That there Orlando can sure paint him a room I tell you. Anyway, in no time the kitchen was done. My current plan is a room a day, and the kitchen was yesterday.

Tonight, Richard, Orlando, and Linda headed over and we tackled the bedroom. Well, Linda yelled at the TV during the debate and we tackled the painting. Prime, Paint, and actually looks good. After everyone left I finished up the trim and put all the face plates back on the walls.

Tomorrow… I paint Linda’s successfully spackled living room wall. Ooooh… and the carpet man should be by as well.

GAINESVILLE, FL — So I’m back in Gainesville trying to get the house ready for selling. I had chosen a realtor who made some amazing decisions that would be sure to get me that “quick” sale. Here’s the short story:

Apparently my built-in entertainment center was something that made the house un-sellable, and according to the realtor impossible for anyone to imagine their furniture in my house. So, Ms. Realtor and her hired handyman remove the entertainment center, leaving some big ol’ holes in the wall and about 40 sq. ft. of hole in the wood floor. They start painting over the kitchen, because apparently the house should be a uniform color.

So, after about 2 weeks of seeing concrete in my wood floor, I start to stress. And stress hard. I call her and explain that I don’t know how the house will be ready for the deadline of 3 days. She goes nuts and literally starts yelling at me. Long story short — she says she cannot work with a client that won’t give her unconditional trust. And then she’s goes buh bye. Never gives me back the key… nada.

So after changing the locks (nice unexpected cost), I go to look for wood floor. No one makes the matching parque… NO ONE. I called Armstrong / Hartco (the manufacturer) who informs me they have discontinued the product and have not had inventory for at least 5 years. YAY!!!!

So, I’m now looking for carpet pricing and finishing painting. Trying to smile… thinking basically of Little Nemo and trying to “just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

If you know me at all, you know I love movies. I mean, I REALLY love movies. But that aside, I no longer enjoy going to the movies. Maybe it’s me getting older… maybe it’s because I love my big-mama tv… or maybe it’s because I’m just a grumpy stubborn man, but it’s rare for me to want to go to the movies rather than see it at the house.

To get me out of the house and paying 11 bucks for a movie… it has to be a movie that excites me (like Iron Man, but let’s talk about that later). I mean after-all, for just 3 bucks more than a ticket price, I can sit in the comfort of my own home, have the ability to pause (rewind, etc), and more importantly – not deal with people.

I truly cannot remember the last time I was at a movie when someone didn’t use their cellphone. Ugh. But at least I know it’s a common problem, because now after some of the movie commercials, you get those director PSAs reminding you to shut off your cellphone. Normally, I always see Sydney Pollack… but today I saw Martin Scorsese’s version (I truly love Scorsese).

Read the rest of this entry »

You gotta love Ralph Waldo Emerson. Not the man, and not all of his writings… but some of them that is. I always loved parts of Self-Reliance. I say parts… as I’ve simply never been able to stand reading the entire essay from beginning to end in a single sitting. Why you ask? Writing style maybe… who knows… but parts of it I truly love. And I feel like quoting them…. for no apparent reason whatsoever. Maybe I’m just nostalgic for some 1980’s Reebok commercials.

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.

–

There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.

–

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

–

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder, because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

–

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

Reposted from the old site:

Ok… many of you know that I have recently acquired digital satellite service for the house. Yes — the clarity and sound are amazing. And, yes — the amount of channels available boggles the mind. But, I have come to realize the best aspect of my new system is the Game Show Network.

So, in the tradition of Robert Fulghum’s “All I ever needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten,” I gladly present:

All I ever needed to know,
I learned from watching the Family Feud.

Note: Some die-hard TV fans know that there have been several versions of the game show over the past 30 years. I really only considered the original Family Feud when writing this. I’m sure the other versions with Ray Combs and Louie Anderson provided many additional lessons, but for me there can only be one. And his name is Richard Dawson.

The premise of the Feud was simple: Two teams composed of five members from the same family, compete against each other to match answers from a survey of one hundred people. However, what we could learn from watching these families interact with each other, themselves, and Mr. Richard Dawson was in no way anything short of extraordinary.

For the last month, I’ve been re-watching many of these episodes, and here are some of the many lessons I’ve remembered:

1) Encourage each other positively.

There are no stupid answers. Ok, that’s wrong. There are an amazing amount of stupid answers. In fact, some of the responses on the Feud are so stupid that you wonder how this person remembers to breathe. Just today, when asked to “Name an animal you might find at the zoo,” the family patriarch said “dog.”

Clearly this is a stupid answer. But what did his family do? Did they scream and curse? No. Did they berate him in front of America? Not at all. In fact, everyone clapped and told him, “Good Answer.” When the big board presented our hero with a strike, the family all consoled the man with a group “Awwww” and tried again.

Later on these lessons would be echoed in the smash hit, Galaxy Quest : “Never give up! Never surrender!”

2) It’s the little things that matter most.

Many visiting families often presented Richard Dawson with gifts from their home towns. Gifts ranged from golf clubs to tennis racquets, bottles of wine to canisters of caviar; but the gifts that got the most attention were the little ones. Many families would spend time personalizing a shirt, painting a little picture, or some other act that required thought and planning, rather than a quick trip to the store. These are the gifts that made Mr. Dawson smile the most.

If you doubt me, just watch the episode where a family made Richard Dawson’s likeness out of macaroni. You can’t fake that smile.

3) Everyone needs a little personal attention.

Black or white, short or tall, thin or fat– every woman received a kiss from Mr. Dawson. From the young to the young at heart, Richard Dawson got personal with the contestants. Very personal. He shared the hugs, the tears, and the laughter. And it showed.

Personally, I think there may have been a little too much kissing, but then again how can a man that has kissed thousands of women be wrong?

4) To have winners, you must have losers.

Even a family that gives their best may not take home the money. Sometimes, it’s just luck that makes one person more successful than another. The bottom line is that if you try your hardest, you will always walk away with something.

So, (to paraphrase the great Forrest Gump), am I trying to say that “Life is like a box of Family Feud…?” Surely not. But, if you take a minute and think about it, wouldn’t it be great if it were?

I admit it — I love movies. Whether it’s quoting dialogue, mentioning an obscure reference, or just general film trivia, I love talking about movies. To make things worse, the only thing I tend to talk about more than movies is my dog.

So where am I going with this?

Lately, there’s something about going to the movies that just irks me… it’s not the main gripes that most people have, such as ticket prices, audience behavior, or theatre quality. Actually, I think those issues are fine — ticket prices match inflation, I can’t remember the last time I heard a cell phone in the theatre, and with stadium seating who can complain?

What lights a fire for me are the commercials shown before a movie. Not the previews… everyone knows I love the previews… I’m talking about the product commercials that we are forced to sit through before getting to view the featured presentation.

Even though I’m not angry about the price of a movie ticket, I am bothered at the thought of paying to see a commercial – or in most cases, several commercials. Whether its Tiger Woods pushing the newest SUV or images of those M&M candies, there is no reason for me to watch advertisements in a movie theatre.

If I were King, I would make it simple… for each commercial shown before the movie, your ticket price is reduced by a buck fifty. At this rate, I would have been paid almost 2 dollars to see Harry Potter (which, by the way, is a great movie).