Being a west coaster, I would love to see a fast train running from Seattle to San Diego. Of course we need a cross country route and several east coast runs. Unfortunately this would cost an incredible amount of money and Obama’s proposed 8 billion is barley a drop in the bucket. Maybe a private company should be encouraged to do it but with the costs involved it could take a very long time just to make your money back so maybe a government/private sector partnership. The Infrastructurist website has a great article on how passenger rail could be saved. Whichever, Amtrak is basically broke and is a broken system. I would hate to see train travel go away so I hope against hope someone can spur a great revival in train travel.

Maybe a small flexible display that wraps around your coffee cup and displays the latest news and Tweets. If this technology does take off, the chances of seeing display technology all over will be very high. Think Minority Report.

A health update

Michael Jackson memorial comments

The state of political discourse on tv in this country.

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It’s not just about less fat and less carb when loosing weight and getting fit. It’s also about portion control. That happens to be one of my biggest challenges so I know all about it. A footlong sandwich is just too much food for one person to eat at a single meal. Now maybe you’re splitting it with someone else or maybe you’re eating half for lunch and half tomorrow. If so, good for you. But Subway certainly doesn’t advertise it that way. Overeating and increased weight are real problems in this country and five dollar footlongs aren’t helping.

Now it seems drinks that artificially jack you up are getting stale and the new kid on the block is a drink that relaxes you. They’re calling it Drank. I have to lay on you some choice quotes from their CEO Peter Bianchi.

“We wanted to give the people on the go something to drink during the day which would help them relax, calm down, and not have to keep an old bottle of gin in their drawer,”

What century is this guy living in? Gin in the drawer? Oh, but there’s more. Quoting directly from the Time article now.

The name Drank has roots in Houston’s hip-hop scene; “purple drank” is a slang term for an illegal concoction that mixes codeine syrup with soft drinks or alcohol.

Nice inspiration Mr. Bianchi. You even colored the can purple. But of course, no relation to the illegal drink. Mr. Bianchi adds.

“The word drank is celebratory slang,” he says. “The name of my product is hip and fun to say: ‘I’m going to get my drank on,’ ” Bianchi says, sounding quite un-hip

I think if any kid in the streets ever said I’m going to get my Drank on, they’d be shot. God help us all. Finally

“We wanted something fun, something that was a healthy alternative to people for using drugs and alcohol,”

Drop the crack pipe kids and grab yourself some Drank. So you see they’re doing us all a public service. If I sound a bit extra sarcastic and annoyed, I am. I think all these kinds of drinks are terrible for you. No long term studies have been done and I think eventually we will see some real ill effects. Artificially pumping yourself up and down is just not healthy under any circumstance. I addition I have a personal gripe. My brother died from a heart attack when he was only 43. When we cleaned out his place we found lots of energy drinks. We think that he was obviously not feeling well, probably overly tired. Rather than go to a doctor or call someone, he tried to gain back his energy with these drinks. I’m not saying energy drinks gave him a heart attack but I am saying that these drinks tell people if they are feeling low they can get their wings with a little Red Bull. When you’re body is giving you a sign like your overly tired or not generally feeling well, you don’t need an energy drink. You don’t need ginseng. Call a fucking doctor for Gods sake.

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computers (some call them smart phones) that are more powerful than my first personal computer, the beloved Apple //e. My first cell phone was given to me by my work. They wanted all managers to have cell phones so you could be reached anytime, anywhere. The joys of being a manager. It was one of those super cool, thin Motorola jobs that were all the rage at the time. State of the art. Then September 11 happened and so many things changed. Luckily it was morning before I had gone to work so my wife and I and Virginia, who was just a baby , were all home. But we started wondering, what if I wasn’t home? What if the attack had happened close to were we lived? Immediately we recognized the need to communicate. Just to coordinate actions, to know where everyone is and where everyone was going. I bought my wife a cell phone the next week. Now cell phones are so cheap, they are finding there way into the hands of kids. I wasn’t a big fan of this at first, but when your kid turns around 9 and starts galavanting around the neighborhood more on their own you start to like the idea. Life is more complex now, faster. Who is going to pick up the kid from the birthday party? I thought Mrs. Jones was bringing you home. Nope. She thought we were. If you kid has a way to communicate, one quick phone call resolves the situation easily.

At first we tried those “kid” phones that are easy for them to use and can only dial certain numbers, ect. Nice idea but the reception was so poor it was worthless. It was just as easy and inexpensive to just get her an AT&T phone and add her to the family plan. But herein lies the trap. Being a child, your kid is likely to loose, misplace or otherwise become eternally separated from his or her phone at some point. If you go into AT&T they will tell you that your kids phone is not up for a discount renewal for possibly a very long time, depending on when the loss happens. In my case, Virginia’s phone is not up for a year. Buy a new phone? Pay the retail price. No thanks. Cancel her line? Pay a $175 early termination fee. Gee, thanks. I’m on the hook for $10/mo for another year for a

phone she doesn’t have. I looked right at the AT&T rep. What am I supposed to do? For a while he just looked at me like I don’t know sir, you’re pretty screwed. “I can’t believe this” I said. Finally he took pity on me and said I could buy a GoPhone and he would give me a replacement SIM card to put in it. A GoPhone would only be around $50. Of course, they don’t sell them at the AT&T store. Of course not, why would they. I went down to Best Buy and took a look. The GoPhone are prettysucky but they would work.

Problem #2: Your daughter has turned 10 and is obsessed with texting. Yes a phone, fine, but can I text? With a real keyboard? Dad, I’ve tried it on a regular phone pad, it’s no good. I can’t argue with that. it does suck. Your first thought is probably my first thought which was she doesn’t deserve a texting phone because she lost the first phone. True, but here is my logic. If I get her a decent texting phone, she will be so happy and obsessed with it she’ll never let it out of her site. It will be way to valuable to loose. But there are no GoPhones I can find retail that have a keyboard. The one I found online wants to force me to sign up for a plan. I just can’t win. Finally I turn to craigslist and you actually can get a Samsung Blackjack for around $100, which is the same price as the texting GoPhone. So I think that’s what I’ll do until her contract is up at which point I will drop her from AT&T. Fuck ‘em. They didn’t help me out, so they loose my business.

Here is the lesson learned. If you want to get you kid a cell phone, go with a pre-paid phone on a network with no contracts like Virgin Mobile. They have decent phones and you won’t be screwed if the phone gets lost, stolen or damaged. Plus, you can always move to a different provider anytime.

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What’s been going on with me? I tell you.

I was thinking lately about how what I do, being a social media consultant, and what I have done in that past, being a webmaster, required a great ability to deal with change. Every week there is something new to digest; this is a constantly moving landscape. And yet, in other parts of my life, change is a demon. Maybe it’s the confidence you are able to bring to the change. With confidence, change can be exhilarating. Without confidence, change can be debilitating. Something to think about. More soon, Thanks for listening.

Several weeks ago, Obama took his wife on a “date” to New York for dinner and a show. It’s something he promised he would to for her when the election was over. Conservatives tried to get themselves into a tizzy over this, saying it cost too much taxpayer money and that he should be focusing on the problems of the nation. After all the crazy money the government spends on meaningless crap, we’re supposed to start worrying about a trip to New York? After the President spent time in France for D-Day, he took the entire family to Paris. Again, why is Obama sightseeing in Paris?

If this is the biggest complaint people can find about Obama, well, that’s pretty pathetic. But here is the bigger thing. These are things Obama is doing for is family. Taking his wife out to New York and letting his kids experience a bit of Paris is fantastic.  We should be lauding him for taking such good care of his family while holding down the most difficult job in the world. It’s a great example for all of us that no matter how hard you are working, no matter how busy you are, there is always time for your family, for your wife.

I’ve always said is isn’t about the numbers. Well, I’ll amend that, unless the number is 6 (the ave number of people that read this blog). Oh, there are more reading though RSS readers which Google can’t tell me, but Feedburner can. Hey, didn’t Google buy Feedburner?

Personal blogs are always less traveled than hot topic blogs because you really have to buy into the person rather than the topic they are writing about. How compelling are you? If I wrote about politics, I would probably have a ton more readers, but than I would have to shoot myself in the eye because I cannot stand the current state of politics, Obama withstanding. Already too many tech blogs, too many of blogging (how meta). Other good niche blogs:

An enema blog
A blog on fingernail biting
Soda addiction blog
Toe cheese blog
Wine and cheese blog

No, this is getting ridiculous. It’s just going to have to be about me, which begs the question, who cares about you? Well, I guess I’ll go back to not caring. It’s my world, welcome to it, so much as it is.

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