http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/90145/in-flight-cell-ban-bill-making-its-way-through-us-congress.html

The discussion of cell phones on airplanes has been going on for a while now. What I find interesting is that the only real argument I hear against allowing cell phone use on planes has NOTHING to do with technology or federal regulations; it has to do with behavior. I find it odd that this debate only seems to center around one emotionally charged reason. Most people I know oppose allowing cell phone use on planes for only one reason: “I don’t want to be sitting next to that self-important sumbitch who has to talk loud into his phone the entire flight!”

Granted, *other people* sure can be annoying with cell phones. I can remember one flight I took to Norfolk from Philly. As we were boarding the plane, one woman a couple of rows back from me started making calls, apparently to people whom she would be seeing in Norfolk. Three phone calls were centered around the endless repetition of “No, we’re on the plane. Yes, we’re on the plane. We’re on the plane! No, we’re sitting on the plane right now!” Seriously, that’s all she kept saying as she went through three phone calls. Would you really want to spend time with somebody too stupid to comprehend that you’re on the plane right now? But is that really a good enough reason to continue to ban the use of cell phones in flight? I’ve never seen any actual proof that the use of cell phones or “portable electronic devices” actually causes any problems with aircraft communication devices. I remember back in the early 80’s when my family flew on an Air Force C-5 from Ramstein to Dover that I couldn’t use my first generation Sony Walkman at all because it would “screw with the plane’s communications and navigation systems.” The Mythbusters set out to test this, but could only test on ground as the FAA wouldn’t relax the laws for one TV show. Their on-ground tests with a variety of cell phones showed no interference with the plane’s instrumentation.

Personally, I wouldn’t mind being able to use my phone, at least, it would be nice to use my data connection inflight. I can’t think of many calls that can’t wait until I get on the ground, but it sure would be nice to have Internet access while flying.

What about you? Can you think of any reason beside “I don’t want to sit next to the sumbitch talking on his phone!” why allowing cell phone use in flight would be a bad idea that should continue to be outlawed?

I just finished a survey put on by Plaxo asking questions about a possible “photo sharing service.” I answered as honestly as I could, that is, I don’t care, probably won’t care next week, and definitely am not likely to care in the next month. If Plaxo offered the service, I would be “highly unlikely” to use it.

Do you ever feel like you’re on the wrong end of a paradigm? I subscribe to quite a few technology blogs through Google Reader, and it does seem that most sites these days are jumping over themselves to offer “photo sharing” services. I put quotes around the words simply to indicate how little the subject interests me.

Want to know what would get me really excited? Something like Apple’s Mobile Me, with two conditions.

1. it works, and is designed more for Windows Mobile than for the iPhone,

and

1. it syncs Outlook tasks.
2. Oh, yeah, being free (or substantially less than Mobile Me’s $99 up front for a year price) would be nice too.

Here’s what I envision: something like Microsoft Exchange, which is prohibitively expensive for a single user like myself. I’d just like the ability to synchronize my ActiveSync items between my Pocket PC Phone and my laptop and maybe another desktop computer without having to pay a buttload or go with a service like Mobile Me that at present seems like a good reason for Apple to issue an apology to Microsoft for years of flack. Hey, Apple, it sure is hard to deploy and support a service that a lot of people actually use, isn’t it? Anyway, I’d like to sync my stuff without needing my cradle and needing my Pocket PC and laptop in the same room.

I’d also like an easier way to update my blog from my Pocket PC. At this point, I can’t input the CAPTCHA from Pocket Internet Explorer, so I can’t post to my blog at all unless I’m at my laptop.

Thus endeth the rant.

Do you care about or plan to use a photo sharing service that Plaxo may roll out? I’m not saying it’s not a good idea, I'm just saying I don't really care right now.

This is hilarious!

On July 27, 2004, I made the following note into Pocket Outlook on my Pocket PC:

Joshua Thomas- born 1552 in the middle of a thunderstorm. 8 lbs 1.2 oz, 20 inches long.

I was working the swing shift at the time. I took my wife to a routine OB/GYN appointment around 9 AM that morning. I planned to take her home, eat lunch, then go to work. Joshua’s due date was Aug 11. My wife hadn’t packed anything. In fact, neither of us had clothes for another day because laundry was going to be done after the appointment. Her blood pressure was slightly high, so we were told to go to the hospital. The hospital concurred and suggested inducing. Then they brought in an ultra-sound and said that Joshua’s shoulders were too big and needed to be delivered by C-section. I’ve since learned that New Jersey has the highest rate of C-sections in the nation and doctors won’t chance anything here. Somewhere around 2:30, the room filled up with doctors and nurses and it seemed like equipment was flying all over the place. My mother-in-law had arrived for support. While Christina was being prepped for surgery, the power went out. She freaked. I figured the hospital had a backup generator, but the power was out for a lot longer than a generator *should* need to kick in. Especially in hospitals, those things should have millisecond tolerances.

Christina was taken back to surgery while my mother in law and I were left in the labor and delivery room. I was fetched to come back to surgery. I didn’t see Joshua taken out. The next year, I watched as Caleb was taken out, but I didn’t get to see as much with Joshua. He came out with a full set of lungs, really ticked off at being removed from his safe warm place. After cleaning him up, I followed him to the nursery, then bounced back and forth between the nursery and my mother-in-law until Christina was wheeled out of surgery into a room. When the doctors felt she was ready, I went down the hall to get Joshua from the nursery. After Christina’s dad and sister arrived, her sister and I drove back to my house to do laundry and pack several days of clothes for Christina. As I said, Joshua was born during a thunderstorm. Several roads were still closed due to flooding and damage while I drove home. We missed it all.

Ultrasound- Dec 24, 2003

Walking down the hall, Jul 27, 2004 

July 27, 2004

 

Pictures from July 2008

 

Happy 4th birthday, Joshua!

http://seanmichaellucas.blogspot.com/2008/07/10-reasons-gen-xers-are-unhappy-at-work.html

This was an interesting blog post, which came from a discussion on Harvard Business Review. At least, it could spark an interesting conversation. I’m considered to be a member of Generation X. I was born in 1974. My parents were Baby Boomers, from the early part of the generation. I’m reaching that point in my career where I don’t entirely have a lot of power, but I’ve built up more than 15 years of experience. I work mostly for Baby Boomers, and the Gen Y members of the workforce already have a few years of experience. I currently work with at least one person who was still in diapers when I started high school yet he is old enough to drink today. It’s an interesting position to be in.

Harvard Business Review makes some assertions that I don’t exactly agree with, but I’m only going to discuss this from my perspective rather than assume that all Gen X’ers see things my way. I do find myself frustrated as a member of Generation X working in a corporate type environment, but not simply because it’s a corporate environment. The original article states:

Many of you X’ers are not thrilled with corporate life. You tend not to trust institutions in general and deeply resent the Boomers’ confident assumptions that you will be motivated by the same things that Boomers have long cared about. Many of you have told me that you are planning to leave corporate life “soon” – to start entrepreneurial ventures or work for smaller companies – options you feel will suite you better than the corporate roles looming ahead.

Honestly, I don’t see it like that. I grew up in the Air Force, and served in the Navy, and I’ve been working around the Navy ever since. I’m honestly very comfortable with it. I don’t mind it one bit, and I’m mostly happy to continue my career in this direction. I’ll address two points that stood out to me, then put in my two cents:

2. When you were teens, X’ers witnessed adults in your lives being laid off from large corporations

I was in my class “C” technical school in San Diego in 1993 when IBM went through it’s historic layoff. That really shocked everybody. But to be honest, I’ve come to the conclusion that an adult is an idiot to get into one job and expect it to last forever. I know that the WWII and Boomer generations were able for the most part to start working for one company and expect to retire from that company 40 or so years later. I’ve never been able to do that. I spent 6 years in the Navy, 1 year as an alarm installer, 5 years with one company, 3 with another, and I started with my current company this past March. I’m 34. In today’s work force, I realize that in most cases, the only way to move up is to move out. When I’m working for one company, I do the best job I can, but I realize that stagnation is my enemy. I always have to keep the next step in my career planned ahead. Today’s workforce is highly volatile, and I never know if I’ll get the axe. I haven’t had to worry about it, and I don’t expect to, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t plan for it just in case. I do the best I can, but I have to keep learning new skills to keep moving ahead. I’m honestly tired of having to keep moving from company to company, but I’ve come to expect it for the time being.

My dad’s career has been good to him. He served for 21 years in the Air Force, a few months in a pawn shop, then after getting his associates degree, he’s been working for the government. He hasn’t had to worry very much about job security. One thing I grew up watching my dad dealing with that I’m not about to is taking too much “crap” from his bosses. I guess my dad grew up and started working in an environment where you weren’t allowed to question authority. My dad was often under the influence of decisions that he disagreed with, but he would simply suck it up then take it out on us later when he gets home. I do my best to be diplomatic, but if I disagree with something or can think of a better way to do it, I will pipe up. I refuse to be complacent in that regard.

Back to job security, another point to keep in mind is that many markets are changing thanks to “globalization.” I don’t like it personally, especially since many policies coming from Congress and the executive branch seem designed to destroy our economy and move jobs overseas. Look into it. Like it or not though, it’s happening. People in manufacturing jobs are finding out left and right that those jobs just can’t compete against Communist Slave Labor in China.

8. Many X’ers’ are guarding a closely held secret: you’re not all as comfortable with the technology that is changing the way things are done as everyone seems to think you are. While it’s perfectly acceptable for Boomers to feign ignorance and ask for help, it’s embarrassing for X’ers to do so.

I don’t buy this one, but maybe I’m on the wrong end of Gen X. I’m not putting myself forth as a representative of the generation by anything more than my own experience, but I still don’t think this point widely applies to all of Gen X. I have an IT degree, for crying out loud. I’m perfectly comfortable with the technology that I work with. This is where I find myself running into problems in the workforce: it’s not me that’s uncomfortable with the technology, but I get highly frustrated dealing with people making policies about the technology who aren’t comfortable with it. Where I work, there are still a lot of Windows 2000 workstations. Windows XP workstations are just now starting to be widely deployed. Windows XP has been out since 2001, and although it will be supported until 2014, Windows Vista has been out for more than a year and a half and contrary to Apple’s “switcher” advertisements, is mature and stable. But the idiots making the policies need 20 years to be comfortable with the technology. By the time they deploy Vista, it will have been out of service for at least a year. One guy I work with told his company that he wanted a company cell phone because he was starting to use a lot of his personal minutes for the job while working on other sites. He was told to find a land line. Sumbitch, that’s cheap and narrow minded thinking for a technology company.

So to summarize, I don’t agree with most of the ten points, and I specifically don’t agree with these two. I don’t have a problem with Boomers (as long as they’re not setting technology policies) and I like the Gen Y people because I can talk tech with them.

I went on travel this week. Perhaps you picked that up from my Twitter feed which at times became quite cynical as my frustrations grew and my time since awaking went longer. I went up to Maine for a meeting. The meeting went well enough, and I learned a lot, and I believe it was very fruitful. I even me some people that I dealt with in my last job. It was good to see them again.

The travel was another story, although in the end we met our objective, arriving home, 24 hours late. We started on a flight out of Philly. About the time we should be pulling away from the gate, the pilot came on the intercom. Apparently, the plane had been fueled twice, and had too much fuel and was overweight for takeoff, so fuel had to be taken out. That would take about a half hour. It finished within the estimate, and we pulled away from the gate and began taxiing. As we taxied, the plane pulled over and the pilot said that all of the fuel was taken out of one wing so one wing was full and the other empty so the plane had to transfer fuel, but had internal pumps. My piloting experience is limited to Cessnas and Pipers (about 12-16 hours total flight time), but I'm sure that like the small planes, the big ones have fuel gauges in the cockpit and the pilot is supposed to check these things before pulling away from the gate. Perhaps everybody involved was on his first day of work. I don't know. We eventually took off, and arrive in Portland, ME after our scheduled time. Most people book tickets for specific flights, especially during the workday, because they need to be somewhere by a certain time. Time is money, and incompetent pilots and fuel truck drivers could end up costing somebody money.

Our stay went well enough. The meeting was productive and we had a good time after work in downtown Portland.

Wednesday, we got to the airport around 4 PM for a 6:20 PM flight. We pulled up at the terminal and I got out to check the flight status. The monitor said "On Time," so we returned the rental car and checked in and got our boarding passes. We then entered the police state through the TSA checkpoint. We then holed up at the Shipyard brewpub with a beer. The other two guys broke out their laptops. I plugged my Pocket PC's cradle into one guy's laptop to top my battery off. The battery in my 6945 does kind of suck for serious business travel. We took turns checking on the flight. Everything from New York got cancelled due to storms. We heard that our plane was on the ground in DC, but could not take off. Eventually, our flight was cancelled. By this point, 8 people from our organization were at the airport waiting for that flight. It's "Parents' Week" at summer camps in Maine, so there is not a single hotel room or rental car available in the Portland area. The only hotel room we could find was over 50 miles away, but there was no way to get to that hotel or back to the airport. One guy broke out his cell phone and we all took turns rebooking on a 7:15 AM flight out of Boston while we worked on finding a way to Boston. Enterprise Rent a Car told one of my coworkers that they had two cars available so he reserved them, but when we called the local office for a pick up, they told us they had no cars as the email confirming the reservation dinged on his Motorola Q. By this point, we were hanging around the rental car counters looking at options. I took a few moments to chew out one of the workers. I said "This kind of thing happens every single year. You know it's coming, so why don't you have any plans to deal with it?" He suggested we take a 3 AM bus to Boston. Sure, great idea. At one point, I asked if we could find a copy of the classifieds. Perhaps somebody was selling a $500 beater that we could abandon in Boston.

We managed to find a limo service with a van that could drive us to Boston, so we booked rooms at the Renaissance hotel in Boston. We had no desire to stay at the Portland airport if we could help it. The van ride cost us $66 each, and it took 2 hours to get to Boston. We rolled into Boston at 11:30 PM, and decided that a 7:15 AM flight was a little too ambitious. We called US Airways to reschedule. The two guys I work with had unrestricted tickets, but because I'm a contractor to the organization and have to book my own travel, I didn't have that luxury. US Airways wanted me to either pay $700 to reschedule or I could buy a new ticket for $500. I'm not going to cry "poor" because I do have a corporate card and this is a reimburseable expense, but just because it's reimburseable does not mean this policy isn't bullcrap. I asked to speak to a supervisor.

By the time I got to speak to the supervisor, it was after midnight. Between the meeting and the travel time, I was already over 16 hours on my timecard and in no mood. I tried to plead my case to the supervisor, who in turn tried to explain to me that the other guys had unrestricted tickets and I had a restricted ticket. I cut her off and said "I understand what the small print says, but I'm not some silly teenager who overslept and is trying to plead for another flight. Your airline STRANDED me in Portland Maine where no hotel rooms or rental cars are available. I rebooked for 7:15 AM out of Boston and had to pay a lot of money to secure my own transportation to Boston. By now it's after midnight, and I'm not really in the mood to get up in three and a half hours to go back to the airport. Your airline put me in this, and you have the authority to make the change.This policy is bogus and is nothing more than a shell game..." At this point, the phone I was on died. This irony is that earlier in the day, I was complaining about the battery life on my phone and the guy who owned the Blackjack that died on me was bragging about how long his lasts. Ah, irony. I called back on my phone to find that like my coworkers, my flight had been adjusted to 11:30 and no charge was required. Sometimes yelling at a manager, especially when the policy is BS, does get things done. With that settled, one of our travelling companions bought us a round of beers at the hotel bar. I went up to bed in my room, which honestly was really nice.

Of course, the nice hotel was not without problems. I wanted to check email and my RSS feeds on my iPod Touch. I easily picked up a wireless network, but could not log on. I called the number and found out that you have to pay for wi-fi. Why do the most expensive hotels always nickle and dime you for little things? There were two tiny bottles of water in my room with a friendly note on them letting me know that upon drinking them, a $4 charge will be conveniently added to my bill. I kept checking the toilet paper for a similar notice.

I settled down into bed and could not sleep. I used my Pocket PC to read email on the 3" screen until I wound down enough to drift off somewhere after 2 AM.

My wife called and woke me up at 7:45. I had an alarm set for 8. I called her when I got to the hotel the night before, so I filled her in on my "conversation" with US Airways. My wife told me that the 7:15 flight was cancelled, as was the 9:30. Even if I did get up at 4 AM I still would have been stuck at Logan. She suggested we get a car and drive. When I met with my companions to leave the hotel, I passed that along. We caught a cab to the airport and went through a LONG line at the TSA Checkpoint Charlie (East Berlin reference for those who forgot the cold war.) Our flight was listed on time. We got some breakfast. At 11 AM, I went to check on the status of our flight and realized that there was no plane at the gate. This was NOT a good sign, as our boarding passes CLEARLY stated that the flight would be boarding at 11. Not long after, we heard that the plane would be landing soon. The plan did land somewhere after 11:30 and we were told boarding would begin shortly. Shortly after that, an announcement was made that maintenance was called out to the plane because of a problem with the bleed air valve. If I remember correctly, the bleed air valve is what killed Payne Stewart in 2000, so the plane does kind of need that. We were told that there would be an hour delay. Then we were told the delay would be longer. At this point, we'd had it with US Airways, weather, and sitting around airports impotent to do anything. One of the guys called Hertz and procured a one-way rental to Philly. We left. The other guy checked a bag. Bad idea. I don't check. Even when my mom died, I only took what I could carry on the plane. The airport told him he couldn't get his bag back. He'd have to file a claim in Philly. The wouldn't let him file a claim at Logan. Throughout the afternoon, he kept calling US Airways about his bag, and was told something different each time. Finally, he found that his bag was in Philly and he could pick it up at baggage claim.

We picked up our car and started driving through the weather that was grounding flights left and right. As we left, the guy with the checked bag found out through his Q that our 11:30 flight was cancelled. He checked again later and found that the 2:30 flight was cancelled. We could have been sitting around the airport all day, but at least we were driving. We had some control over our destiny.

Of course, this trip wasn't as simple as driving home. We had to return the car at Philly, and two of us left our cars in long term. We picked up my car, I followed him to Hertz, then took him to get his car. I got home at about 9:10 last night. I was still at work at 6:30 this morning. I'm a real road warrior.

I got a funny text from my supervisor this morning. He was one of the guys with me on the trip. My company issued me a Verizon RAZR when I started, but because it's practically useless, I don't use it much. When I get home from work at night, I turn it off and throw it in my underwear drawer. I forgot to take it with me when I left on Monday. This morning, I took it out and turned it on to find that I had a new message. It was from my supervisor, dated this morning at 5:53 AM, saying that he was at a certain bar by our gate at the airport. I was a little groggy, and wondered "What the hell are you doing at the airport? Haven't you had enough at this point?" I figured out quickly that he sent the text when he got to the airport on Monday so we would know where to find him. Somehow the message was timestamped for when I got it rather than when it was actually sent. Great move, Verizon or Motorola. The Verizon RAZR sucks. It's good for making calls while I'm at work so I don't have to use my personal minutes, but other than that it doesn't DO anything. Verizon has it locked down so far it's pretty much useless outside of making calls.

Anyway, I'm back at work and I have to get ready for my next trip. I'm renting a car and driving for that one. I'm tempted to say I'll drive for any travel from now on, even if it's to Hawaii. Heh, heh, heh.

I might write a post later on about air travel. If you think about it, airports and airlines really aren't equipped, nor do they seem to care, when things go wrong during travel. We had quite a few discussions during our journey about the "Passenger's Bill of Rights" that went before Congress before being shot down. Stupid Congress. Of course, they get a lot more money from the airlines than they do from the people that the airlines screw on a dialy basis. Of course they're going to protect the airlines. The airlines have no incentive to treat customers right, because if they screw up they'll get another taxpayer bailout.

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/07/17/a-quick-rant-about-notes/

The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a complaint about the iPhone’s notes program. I have notes on my iPod Touch, but I don’t use it for much more than to show people the SIP keyboard and predictive typing. I can say I’m somewhat disappointed that Apple decided that notes don’t need to be synced between device and computer. Once again, Windows Mobile has done this all along. I do routinely use the notes function on my Pocket PC.

This morning during my church’s Bible class hour, we had an interesting discussion. The class opened with the talk about “How many of you found that your life became more difficult after you became a Christian?” That was followed by the question of how many of us were told that “coming to Christ” would make our lives easier? I was able to answer the first question in the affirmative, but I’m not so sure about the second. I’d heard many “pitches” for the Gospel over the years. I guess it was at the right time that some friends came into our lives that I was receptive.

The question got me thinking though, and I put up my hand to talk about how sometimes, evangelism sounds like a bait and switch scam. “Oh, if you come to Jesus, everything will be easier. You won’t be sick anymore, you’ll have lots of money and friends.”

“OK, I came to Jesus, and my life is falling apart. You told me everything would get better!”

“Oh, did I say that? Well, I meant everything would get better in the next life.”

To be honest, I hate when Biblical discussions degenerate into that “well, those promises are for after this life.” I realize where people are going with that, but the entire Bible takes place over 2000 and several nations so there are some promises that are specific for Israel at specific times, others for Israel in the future, others for the church now, others for the church in the future, and yet there are others for God’s people throughout time. It is very sloppy to just slap a spiritualized interpretation on everything. There is some allegory in the Bible, but it always seemed to me that the Bible will tell you what those are during careful study.

I guess I have little room to talk though. Whether I present the Gospel like I’m on commission or not, it’s been years since I’ve tried to talk to anybody outside of the church about Jesus. My non-Christian readers should have no fear about me showing up preaching on street corners anytime soon.

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/89981/best-buy-s-10-bluetooth-headset-pairing-service-includes-finger-pointing.html

Back in 1996 when I started becoming a computer geek, I was absolutely shocked to find out what stores like CompUSA were charging for simple services that I could do with my eyes closed. A friend of mine said he wanted to upgrade his RAM, but CompUSA wanted $50 to install it. I think I broke something in my brain trying to figure out how sticking a chip in a slot could cost $50. I told him I’d do it for beer and pizza. Even with Sam Adams and a Meat Lover’s, I still came out cheaper plus I fixed a few other problems he had while I was at his apartment.

I guess $10 to pair a Bluetooth headset is fair by comparison. This is a tricky and painful though quick procedure. You definitely have to be patient, and pairings don’t always stick. I’ve had some pairings, like the author of the article I linked, that inexplicably stopped working and didn’t easily want to start again.

I do feel for people who spend hundreds of dollars to computer shops to fix viruses and spyware. My neighbors spent $300 when they got infected. I could have fixed it with free software that doesn’t bog your computer down and nag you to death like McAfee.

The earliest point in my life that I can remember enjoying writing was my Junior year in high school. I went to John Jay High School in San Antonio, Texas (Class of 1992.) My Junior year obviously was 1990-1991. For English class that year, I had a teacher named Mrs. Ladson. I don’t know why some teacher’s names stick with you and some don’t. I don’t remember much exceptional about Mrs. Ladson’s teaching ability, but I do remember a lot of students didn’t like her and accused her of being mean, but for some reason I had no problems with her and she even seemed to like me. My friend Wes once commented to me that Mrs. Ladson, while chastising him for some behavior infraction, said “Why can’t you be more like my student in (whatever period I had her class) Eric?” Go figure.

One hallmark of Mrs. Ladson’s class was the journal. For the first 20-35 minutes of class, we were to write in our journals. We had to have a separate notebook (yep, one more public school teacher demanding parents spend more money on school supplies for one class) to keep a journal in. Some days, she would write a theme on the board for us to write about. Other days, she would allow us to “freewrite.” Most students used that time to misbehave. For some reason, I didn’t. Maybe I didn’t have any friend in that class.

At one point, Mrs. Ladson had a student teacher. I wish I could remember his name, because he’s truly the nexus of this post. He really took the journal time to a new level. Each day, he would put a word or phrase or concept on the board. The phrases were the best. He would put part of a sentence up and ask us to finish a story. I don’t know why, but he really inspired me, and I wrote a lot of my best work under his themes. I know I’ve kept my journal notebook from that class, although most of our stuff is somewhere in limbo between here and my in-laws’ house with the expectation that someday this house will sell.

So, to Mr. Student Teacher in 1990-1991, at John Jay in San Antonio, in Mrs. Ladson’s class, if you come across this post for one reason or another, please leave a comment. You have no idea how much you inspired me to write for the rest of my life. I’ve never made a dime off of my writing, but somehow you really did inspire me to keep it up and to even enjoy it.

I’ve been blogging since the end of 2004, and just yesterday one of my posts generated a record setting 5! comments! That felt good, although two of those comments were me replying to somebody. Still, I’ve never had two comments to reply to. The final comment agreed with me, but that was a friend of mine that I asked to check my post, my logic, and my character in response to those who were kind enough to read my post and comment on it.

I’ve mentioned at a few points that I wanted to be a “problogger,” or somebody who makes lots of money by blogging. I’ve slowly come to realize that this isn’t for me, at least, not at this point in my life. I enjoy writing, to a point, but I imagine if my income came to depend on it, I might not be able to keep up. I’ve also not been able to discover a niche. My interests vary from time to time. I’ve tried at various points to have blogs dedicated to PC’s, Linux, Apple, Marriage and Family, Bible Study, IT, politics, education, theology, Franklin Covey, GTD, teamwork, etc. I’ve tried various themes, but I’ve never been able to stick with one niche long enough to generate a lot of repeat interest. At this point, I guess I’d be happy with people who stop by just to see what I’m going to write about next.

For some reason, I’m on an MLM kick this week, ever since the post I linked to above. I’ve been involved in an MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) organization. Actually, I’ve been involved in two, and I’ve seen “plans” for several others. I’ve read lots of testimonies of people who came out of the specific MLM that I devoted a lot of time and money to get nowhere. Aw, the memories! Of course, the question remains, what will I be into next week?

According to the Clifton StrengthFinder assessment, one of my strengths is Learner. My current company, when I started, gave me a copy of the “Now, Discover Your Strengths” book. They’re a “Strengths Based Organization,” which I found interesting. After years of “focusing on my weaknesses,” including during my time in that MLM, it’s refreshing to work for a company that wants me to learn about my strengths and put me forward to our customer based on them. It’s an interesting concept. Of course, I also work for an engineering company that was started by engineers, that believes  family comes first and “work is what we do so we can do the things we want to do after work, so have fun” in it’s value statement. I’m babbling, but I’m not getting paid for this. Apparently, the strength of “Learner” sums me up pretty well. I hope I’m not posting copywrited material, and I’ll take this down if I am, but here is the definition of Learner from the assessment:

Learner

You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences—yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”

That’s me, all right. That explains why this week I’m spending my free time reading and thinking about MLM’s, and next week I could be off on another tangent entirely.

At this point, I’ve decided that one of my goals for blogging is to work on my written communication skills. As I learn new ideas, or think through old ones, my goal is to work on how well I can communicate to those who are kind enough to stop by my blog and read my posts.

I have considered getting my own hosted service, but for now I’ll stay here, or with another free blogging service.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) has a post about the top five iPhone gripes. Part of me is falling under the spell of the “Reality Distortion Field” while another part of my looks at the iPhone and realizes that my Pocket PC phone can already do most of what the iPhone does, in many cases better.

After years of Apple fans bashing Microsoft foul-ups, I’m intrigued to see Apple running into problems with a major release.

I’ve heard many times over the last year since the original iPhone was released that “AT&T will always be the iPhone’s Achilles Heal.” I think I agree with that statement, outside of the iPhone’s own limitations. I’ve been with AT&T for a long time, and to be honest, the only thing that has kept me with them is the fear that no other carrier is any better. My phone signal goes in an out like the tides. No kidding, I can be sitting in the same spot and go from five bars to no signal and back to five bars again several times within a few minutes. Call quality isn’t that great. My wife frequently doesn’t get calls from people, and voice mails will show up suddenly two weeks or more after they were left. We’ve complained about this many times in the last three years, and she’s been through five phones with the exact same problem. The problem seems to have eased the last time they replaced her phone, but it’s still there. Once again, I doubt any other carrier is any better. I hear T-Mobile’s coverage isn’t good, but everybody loves their customer service. I’ve never met anybody who complained about T-mobile’s customer service. Even Consumer Reports reflected this in their phone issue approx October 2007.

One AT&T flaw I expected was overwhelmed activation servers. I can’t tell you how many times I try to log into AT&T to check my minutes or how much data I’ve used, only to find the entire website or even a small portion of it (like data usage) unavailable. For a world class telecommunications company, AT&T really doesn’t impress me.

TWIT Live.TV

Leo LaPorte is apparently going to broadcast around the clock as the iPhone goes on sale around the world, starting in New Zealand and concluding 24 hours later in Honolulu. I have his feed running right now. I wouldn’t have known about this had I not checked my Google Reader feeds. I’ll probably only listen in for a few minutes, but I heard him say “Alex Lindsey will be stopping by around 4 in the morning," which will be 7AM here, by which time I should be settled into work and finished with my first cup of coffee. I doubt I can get his site at work through the proxy though.

In any case, if you’re interested in such ambitious coverage of what may be exciting but will eventually go down in history as a fairly trivial event, tune into the link.

I thought this was interesting, yet not surprising. A study often cited by consultants and motivational speakers turns out to not have happened. This is why documentation and references are very important. My last post was about MLMs (Multi-Level Marketing) organizations. I have been involved with an MLM in the past. I can remember statements in "The Plan," or the Sales and Marketing Plan, such as "The Wall Street Journal says that this is the business of the future." I even made that statement myself on occasion when I was giving "The Plan" to people. Looking back, I am more than a little embarrased by my naivete in regard to believing and passing on undocumented statements. If I could sit through that original "Plan" today, I would likely ask if the article or author could be produced to document the reference. I can also remember being told that "The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that this business is not a pyramid!" Again, no documentation was offered. Of course, I can also remember being told that "If you work this business only 8-10 hours a week, which is spare time, you can retire in 2-5 years!" I didn't have the Internet back then (1993), but from what I read now, most testimonials reflect mine- giving up lots of time prospecting, showing "The Plan", going to functions and meetings a lot more than 10 hours a week, and getting nowhere. I'm not aware of anybody who can claim to have "succeeded" on only 8-10 hours a week.

Goal setting is a wonderful thing, and motivational authors and speakers certainly have a place in the world, but always pay attention and listen for undocumented references or stories when dealing with them. The same thing goes if you find yourself invited to a "business meeting." Look for documented refences. Any salesman can make fanciful claims about a product or system and people who have been successful, but can the salesman substantiate them?

Casey Serin is coming back. This should be interesting.

I first heard about Casey Serin I believe around March of 2007 from a story titled "The World's Most Hated Blogger." At that point, I still had aspirations of being a "problogger" and making lots of money from blogging. The title of the article intrigued me, so I clicked on the link wondering what it could possibly be about. I read about a person named Casey Serin who spent a bunch of money on real estate "investing" courses and bought a total of eight houses in several different states, maxed out all of the available equity through routine yet illegal means such as "liar loans" and overstating income, then couldn't sell the houses and the entire deal crashed down around him. He started a website, I Am Facing Foreclosure.com, which is no longer available but thanks to the Internet Archive can still be read. For some reason, like a lot of other people, I was intrigued by this guy. A lot of people suspected him of being some kind of viral marketing stunt, as if there is no way what he did could have been possible. Could anyone really be that greedy and stupid? I followed along for months with others watching him borrow more money, take afternoon naps, and pursue more "sweet deals" rather than trying to get a job and provide for his wife. I honestly didn't know what to make of the whole deal. Did he have some kind of personality disorder, or was he brainwashed by too many real estate seminars or "Rich Dad" style motivational books? I don't know.

One of the things that really bugged me about Casey is that everybody who disagreed with him was labeled a "hater", which later came to take a more trademarked style of "haterz." As you can see through political correctness in society, disagreement with a position is often immediately connected to hate. This is a logical fallisy but is highly useful as it has the effect of immediately shouting down the dissenting voices and dismissing any possible points they may have.

Casey had several people along the way who tried to help him. They all attempted to get deals with him, which would give him some productive work to do and give them the chance to capitalize off of his popularity. He always managed to slip out somehow, leaving the other person hanging. Sometimes money and commitments were involved and a lot of feelings were hurt. One person did pursue legal action, but as I remember he was talked out of it.

Like other readers, I tried to leave comments and even sent Casey an occasional email offering prayers and advice.

Casey ran off to Australia on an offer to stay with a fan on really short notice, leaving his wife to deal with the collectors. By the time he came back, his wife had it. He eventually sold his blog and shut the operation down. So far he's popped back up twice, only to dive back into obscurity.

I honestly want the guy to come out of whatever got him into his current mindset and be successful. Honestly, he makes a perfect case study for a Dave Ramsey class: trying to borrow your way to prosperity does not work.

I'll stay tuned. Let's see what develops.

Yesterday, Dave Ramsey and a caller really got into it over something called "United First Financial." Dave called it an MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) scheme and the woman insisted that he didn't know what he was talking about while Dave insisted that she couldn't do math and didn't understand how a mortgage works. Things got really heated when she let on that she was a Realtor. Wow. Of course, in true MLM distributor fashion, she claimed that Dave Ramsey couldn't know anything about their services if he had never been to a presentation.

Having been involved in a couple of MLM's in the past, and having studied various aspects of them, I thought I would check into this "United First Financial." From what I gather, the program involves purchasing a $3500 web-based software program. You also take out a HELOC (Home Equity Line Of Credit.) The HELOC has to be at a lower interest rate than your mortgage. You then use checks from the HELOC to pay your mortgage and other bills. The $3500 program apparently tells you the optimal time to pay your mortgage. The point to this is to hit your mortgage account right before interest is calculated so that interest is calculated on a lower amount. This can apparently save a bunch of money in the long run.

To me, the whole process seems over-complicated, expensive (if you have an extra $3500 around, why not just dump it into your mortgage in the first place?) and has the potential for dangerous amounts of debt to be racked up. Dave Ramsey's books can all be purchsed for under $25. I'd recommend starting there.

If anyone who has been or is involved in this stops by, what are your thoughts?

I said a while back that I'm going to start monitoring oil so I can get a feel for what's going on and what's going to happen. I generally don't trust most news reporting because of the "if it bleeds, it leads" policy, among other reasons. I can remember stories back in 2002 and 2003 stating that "gas will hit $4 a gallon this year." While that did eventually happen, it took until this year, 2008, to happen, making the reporting from 5 and 6 years ago highly inaccurate.

Any research into how the oil market works will inevitably come across some discussion of "futures trading" and "oil speculating." I'm not sure how that works entirely, but I have heard that "futures traders are responsible for the mortgage mess we're in" a few times. I don't know what kind of truth is in that statement. It seems like greed, impatience, and shortsightedness on the part of both homebuyers and lenders was a large part of the cause, and yes, I take some credit for that as I am in my own mess in that regard from some shortsighted decisions I made.

Anyway, I came across this brief primer of how futures trading works, and how Congress, which won't allow any drilling for oil on our own shores, is starting to haul oil futures traders in front of their committees as they have run out of oil executives to blame.

I got my hair cut for the first time in what seems like forever Saturday morning. My hair is very thick and uncontrollably wavy, and because it’s summer, I decided to just get buzzed. My wife informed me that I actually look like somebody. Guess who? She thinks I look like Chef Robert Irvine from the Food Network’s Dinner Impossible. What do you think? Below are the chef and me. Guess which picture is him, and which is me. Hint, I’m the one taken in a dark computer room with a 1.3 megapixel Pocket PC Phone camera. I just wish I had the chef’s trunk-like arms.

 

I’m really knocking out the posts tonight. I guess since I haven’t had a chance to blog lately, I have a lot of pent up posts. Over the weekend, I was scrolling through the DirectTV program guide at my in-laws’ house. I came across the last couple minutes of the UK edition of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. I always wanted to see that one. I enjoyed the US version last year. I hope it comes back. In any case, the few minutes of the UK edition didn’t really do much for me. I guess I’m used to the US edition. There is just something about American pride and arrogance that makes for better TV. You know, the kind of “OK, chef Ramsay, who the hell do you think you are to tell me what to do in my restaurant, despite the fact that I’m failing and you’re like a world class chef and owner of 3000 successful restaurants and a celebrity and a respected authority and all that? Who do you think you are to tell me what to do?” Really, it does make for good television. It’s almost like listening to people call Dave Ramsey to tell him that they have a better idea for paying off debt and want to buy a new car and buy a house on an interest-only mortgage. Dave always asks something along the lines of “How many millions of dollars do you have on that system?”

I’m looking forward to the finale of Hell’s Kitchen tomorrow. For some reason, I like that show too.

I’ve been watching the Next Food Network Star. I watched Season 3, and I’ve been watching Season 4. I’ve said before that in the beginning, I hated reality TV, but I’ve since developed a taste for some of it. I don’t give a ripped fart for American Idol or America’s Got Talent, nor do I watch Survivor. I really did get into The Apprentice, even the Martha Stewart season. Of course, I love Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers. For some reason, I enjoy The Next Food Network Star.

When I think about it, this has got to be really hard. For one thing, the contestants are supposed to have some kind of culinary skill. I don’t think they have to have attended culinary school or worked professionally as a chef, but they certainly need to have some talent. Of course, that’s not enough. They have to be able to work well under pressure. They have to be able to, as my favorite movie line goes, “Improvise, adapt, overcome” (Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge.) But even if they can pull that much off, they have to go on camera and be believable. They have to be able to teach, to explain, to communicate, and to show some authority. It’s interesting watching people try to do all of this. For some reason I find some perverse enjoyment.

I did get to meet two of the Season 3 candidates. My wife, her parents and I went to the Food and Wine festival in Atlantic City last year. Tommy and Adrian were there. They held the camera so we could have our picture taken with Guy Fieri. They seemed like really good guys.