Monthly Archives: April 2009

Bills futility breeds futility breeds more futility

Posted on by
Comments

I’ve written about the Bills’ futility before. And it continues. It’s like a snowball effect of mediocrity.

Today, they traded their pro-bowl left tackle for one #1 draft pick this year, and a reported one late round pick next year. I admit, I think he was a bit overrated. But at the very least, he was a quality starting NFL lineman in an important spot.

But to be fair, they were in a lose lose situation. Overpay for an overrated tackle, or open a big hole.

At this point, I would have opted to overpay.

A team with too many holes to fill just opened up another one. A very important one. And they lost 2 other offensive linemen this offseason too.

They picked up Terrell Owens, which I support only because they need him desperately.  But they shouldn’t need a player of that questionable character that desperately.

Owens could be a plus, but could also be a huge minus if the Bills lose the first few games (and he becomes a cancer).

And Owens aside, on paper, the Bills are a lot worse than last year–a lot worse than the 7-9 team of last year. And Dick Jauron is still the coach, which is another minus.

I’m not a capologist, but something strange is going on. The Bills can’t pay anyone anything, but every other team seems to be able to. This leads me to believe the Bills are not interested one bit in creating a winning team. At best they can only hope to field a .500 team. Which I think is even unlikely.

The bottom line is the Bills are in such a funk, that they have no leverage at the bargaining table. They are NOT rebuilding, rather wallowing in futility.

I smell something fishy – Susan Boyle Video

Posted on by
Comments

No, no, no. I don’t think Susan Boyle smells fishy. Although I would not be surprised if she did.

What I mean is her singing thing has publicity stunt written all over it.

Remember… Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.

This is the Susan Boyle video making the rounds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

It’s WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too similiar to the one from a few years back.

Remember this one? Paul Potts Britain’s Got Talent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DelJrP3P7tA

I call BS on this! Total publicity stunt.

Another Google Feature Request for Calendar

Posted on by
Comments

A lot of others are asking for the same thing:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Calendar/thread?tid=6950872dc50541b6&hl=en

Please let users choose a calendar for the Google Calendar / Outlook sync function. Right now it just syncs with the main calendar.

Listen Google, 99.9972% of businesses use Outlook. Deal with it. People want to sync their work with their personal calendar using Google Calendar, but maintain them separately. So howsaboutit?

The Bubba Keg is now dead to me

Posted on by
Comments

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Dribble coffee on my shirt for the 20th time, you are my worst enemy.

I thought I hit paydirt when I found the Bubba Keg. I consume way too much coffee, I know. But this thing allowed me to bring 34 oz of home brewed goodness to work. 7-11 coffee was starting to cut into the household budget. Side note: I usually didn’t finish the entire 34oz.

The Bubba Keg is big, but not obnoxiously big. The problem with me going with a quality brand like Thermos is a 34 ouncer would be enormous. I basically wanted a big cup that I can travel from home to work with (oh and that doesn’t leak all over the place)–and can fit into a standard car cupholder too. I’ll sacrifice heat for the convenience of carrying it. I don’t like piping hot coffee anyway.

One one problem. The friggin thing leaks like a sieve. No matter how tight I screw the lid, the thing leaks. I’m not sure why it took at least 20 stained shirts for me to finally hate and give up on this thing.

I have a pet peeve with inferior products. Bubba Keg is on my S list big time now.

I even took a pic. See the damn dribble lines? About half of that is on my shirt.

Another Twitter Flip-Flop?

Posted on by
Comments

So I wrote that I gave up on Twitter, then wrote that I flip-flopped and am back on Twitter again. Now, I’m not so sure again. I have to trust my instincts here. Twitter is not THAT good.

The problem is that a lot of people can’t figure it out. And those who have, a lot of them aren’t genuine. Rather they are way too self-promotional. Way too forced in my opinion.

Or they write something bad about an company in hopes that the company will respond. Which they do. And which I feel opened up a can of worms.

The conversations are so all over the place it’s hard to follow or find anything REALLY interesting.

This is what I see:
“Earthquake in San Jose!”
“RT @earthquakereporter Earthquake in San Jose!”
“RT @earthquakereporter Earthquake in San Jose!”
This is what I don’t feel:
WOW, there must be an earthquake, I MUST re-tweat it for the greater good of mankind.

This is what I see:
Random person: “My @starbucks coffee was cold.”
Starbucks: “@randomperson Please tell the cashier and they will gladly give you a new one.”
This what I don’t feel:
I care about that. They shouldn’t have just asked the cashier instead of bitching publicly.

This is what I see:
onlinemarketer: “Check out my 101 ways to increase conversion: tinyurl.blah.”
onlinemarketerfan: “RT @onlinemarketer Check out my 101 ways to increase conversion: tinyurl.blah.”
onlinemarketer2: Check out my 102!!! ways to increase conversion: tinyblah.schmo
This is what I DO feel:
Great, more linkbait self-promotion.

People “get” Facebook. People “get” message boards. People “get” blogs. A lot of people I talk to don’t “get” Twitter at all. And I understand why.

I used to try to explain Twitter to people as part blog, part IM, and part message board. I had an epiphany this morning. You know what Twitter reminds me a LOT of? AOL chat rooms! Remember them? Where are they now? People got bored of them. The hype wore off.

It can be good for companies, bands, special groups, etc. But if and when it becomes widely adopted (which I don’t think will ever happen), it’ll become more of a spam fest than it already is.

That said, career wise I need to keep tabs on it. So I’ll be poking around until it dies.

Here is a funny little video about Twitter.


Twouble with Twitter
by tux-planet