Archive for category discussion

Fuck It All and Fucking No Regrets

February 5th, 2010 @ 12:05 am - No Comments

Carrie wrote a nice little bit on embracing regret on her blog. (go read it, I’ll still be here)

Done? Good. Neat post, huh?

I have a slightly different view. Mostly it comes down to semantics, but it changes the perspective entirely. I have no regrets. Not by Carrie’s definition. I subscribe to the “play it safe” or “good enough” or “fear of the unknown” method of looking back. That is to say the choices I made and the things I did put me where I am now and made me who I am…and I’m pretty damn happy with both. Could it be better? Probably. Could it be worse? Surely.

But to really suggest that there’s nothing you’ve done or experienced in your life that you feel sorry about or wish would have been different, is just not likely.

Feel sorry about? Ehhhh…maaaaybe. Not sure about that.

Wish had been different? Nope. Not one.

Wonder how things would be different had a given event in the past gone differently? Absolutely. But I don’t wish they were different – not one – because changes in the past most likely put me in a different place now – for better or worse.

I attribute it this way: If there is something in my past that, if given the chance, I would apply the 20/20 hindsight I now have and go back and do differently because I didn’t like the outcome, then it’s classified as a regret. Simple as that.

And by that definition, I can honestly say I don’t. If it’s small enough to have not changed my life in any major way, there’s no reason to sweat it. If it’s big enough that it could have changed my life, I probably still wouldn’t change it for fear of how it changes everything. As corny and cliched as it is, it’s that those things didn’t play out in a way I thought best that made me who I am and put me where I am in life…and I have no complaints so far.

No regrets.

Curiousity. But not regret.

Plus, it was a good excuse to use a Metallica lyric as a post title…which I’m already starting to regret. Damn!

Obama Confuses Me

July 30th, 2009 @ 12:51 pm - 1 Comment

I originally saw this on Tyler’s blog:

“… Although I’ve gotta say, when I hear critics talk about out of control spending I start scratchin’ my head. I can’t help but remember, those same critics contributed to a $1.3 trillion deficit that I inherited when I took office. [applause]… I mean, seriously, I’m now president, so I’m responsible for solving it, but I don’t think we should have a selective memory. You hand me a $1.3 trillion dollar bill and then you’re complaining 6 months later because we haven’t paid it all back. [applause] A debt, by the way, that was partially the result of two tax cuts that went primarily to the wealthiest few Americans, and a Medicare drug program that wasn’t paid for. These are the same folks who are now complaining about health care, we can’t afford health care. You pass a prescription drug program and didn’t pay for it! Handed the bill to me. [Obama laughs]…”

… .. Nobody is talking about some government takeover of health care. [applause] I’m tired of hearing that … These folks need to stop scaring everybody. [applause and cheering]… .. …”

- Obama in Raleigh, North Carolina (rough transcript)

What does that even mean?

Pass my health care bill because I inherited a deficit? It’s ok for me to spend too much on bad ideas because those guys did too?

And what does that second part about takeovers and scaring people even have to do with the first part about the old guys spending and handing Obama the bill?

What’s the message supposed to be in that quote? Seriously, I’m not being facetious. Would one of my liberal friends take a moment to explain it to me either on my blog or on Facebook when it gets syndicated over there.

Black Friday

May 29th, 2009 @ 1:28 am - 1 Comment

We finally got around to watching Zack and Miri Make a Porno tonight. There’s this bit at the very beginning about Black Friday being racist. It’s pretty funny. Watch it if you’re not familiar (you only need to watch the first minute or so):

Great, ridiculous stuff, huh?

Here’s the kicker – this has actually happened to my wife…in real life…with one of her managers. They actually had to quit using the term “Black Friday” around the office.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

Jake DeSantis

March 25th, 2009 @ 3:25 pm - 7 Comments

I’m sure you saw my post last week wondering about the outrage in the AIG bonuses. That only touched on dollar amounts and the absurdity of the situation. I’d have liked to go into it further, but the truth is I don’t know a whole lot about it. However, the whole thing still feels like a witch hunt to me.

On Tuesday one of the company’s executive VP’s resigned and did so with a scathing letter that spells out his take on the whole thing and it was printed in the New York Times.

I’ll quote just a little that I feel sums it up:

I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.

…I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

You’ve now asked the current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. to repay these earnings. As you can imagine, there has been a tremendous amount of serious thought and heated discussion about how we should respond to this breach of trust.

As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.

Yep. He’s right.

AIG Bonuses

March 17th, 2009 @ 6:13 am - No Comments

Just watching the news this morning and the whole thing still feels like meaningless outrage.

I just can’t get mad about wasting 165 million dollars (which was already apparently contractually agreed upon) when we’re giving them at least 180 billion in bailout money.

To put it in perspective, it’s like loaning a friend $180 and getting mad when they give 17 cents away to someone they already agreed to pay 17 cents to…no matter how silly or ridiculous the conditions of agreement, it’s still irrelevant.

I’m more pissed that were giving them the $180,000,000,000+ in the first place. Not at some guys who were smart enough to make some very lucrative deals in the past.

Commercial Pacing and Other Entertainment Thoughts

March 10th, 2009 @ 12:21 pm - 4 Comments

Just read this:

Gimme A Commercial Break!

I have to say I agree 100% with the idea that the commercials are necessary to the pacing. Obviously the answer is that eventually shows will be written with non-commercial pacing, but we’re not there yet. Just found the idea interesting.

Which leads me to something else that I think will be lost in the world of entertainment in the near future – spontaneity.

Since we moved, we’re stuck with Time Warner. I fucking hate everything about Time Warner. Their prices are too high, their offerings too few and their equipment sucks major ball sack. I always knew it, but after sampling AT&T for a few months before we moved, it’s painfully obvious. The sick thing is that even though we moved less than a mile as the crow flies, there’s no plans for AT&T to make service available here any time soon. I’m disgusted every time I sit down to watch TV and I cringe every time I pay the Time Warner bill.

With all of that said, it’s made me consider being on the bleeding edge and just dropping a service provider altogether. A combo of an antenna, a PC hooked to the TV and something like a Roku along with my Netflix subscription would probably cover everything I already watch.

I’m only concerned about losing two things – discovery and spontaneity.

I know I’m old school in this aspect and I think I talked about this before on this blog, but when it comes to my entertainment I prefer a little spontaneity and I like the random process of discovering something I enjoy.

With TV that means surfing through the channels and having something catch my attention and getting sucked in and enjoying it. Maybe a movie, maybe a documentary about the mating habits of some rare bird found only on a remote island, maybe a sitcom that becomes regular viewing.

With “on demand” programming it’s different. I have to choose to see the show. With channel surfing, it’s being shown to me.

With the world going “On Demand” and everyone watching exactly what they want when they want, I fear this simple joy of spontaneous discovery is on its way to extinction.

I think the same applies to music. I love my iPod. I love having my entire collection of music available anywhere. I sometimes miss driving in the car and just channel surfing and finding a song I like that I hadn’t discovered previously.

My biggest “old curmudgeon” thing to overcome in the face of changing entertainment delivery is how to keep that spontaneity, how to continue that path of discovery.

Because while the tech and the change fascinates me, it’s one area where I’ll be sad to see the old way go.

Dining Room

March 9th, 2009 @ 1:37 pm - No Comments

Is the idea of a formal dining room passe?

Here’s the deal. We have no need for a formal dining room. None. I hate the idea of a room with a formal dining setup just sitting there being wasted space.

Ideally, we’d like to do a huge expensive kitchen renovation and suck up the formal dining room into a new larger, bad-ass kitchen. But that costs a lot of money and isn’t something we’ll be jumping on any time soon.

In the meantime we’ve decided to incorporate it as part of the front room/office and make it a sitting area thus creating one large office/sitting room thingy on the left side of the house. It should be a pretty nice area.

So yeah, that’s where we stand. Some people I talk to can’t fathom the idea of not having a formal dining area and others seem to understand our approach completely.

No formal dining room for us though – we’re leading the way into the 2nd decade of the 21st century and beyond.

Things Suck. I’m Fine.

February 25th, 2009 @ 1:16 am - 5 Comments

Was just flipping around channels and stopped for some reason on Larry King on CNN. This is almost verbatim what Larry said:

Here’s something that’s puzzling us. A CNN Opinion Research Poll shows that nearly 8 of 10 people say things are going badly, yet 3 of 4 say they’re doing fine personally.

That’s odd.

Then again, I still believe that people think things are bad because they keep being told how bad things are. I’ve been saying that all along. That’s not to say that things are fine or there aren’t people having a rough go of it, but it would certainly explain the poll results to a degree.

Where Does Money Come From

February 21st, 2009 @ 12:29 am - No Comments

Saw this over at Draegs. It’s a five part thing with each part being a little over nine minutes, so set aside a little time to watch. The first three parts are absolutely fascinating and enlightening. The fourth gets a little preachy and the last shows hints of an agenda or at least the author’s personal opinions come through – less fact and a little too much opinion. All in all I’m glad I spent the time to watch it. For some good fun, watch the first few parts and think about what money is and how none of us really consider value and worth and currency – just that money buys things – and then go back and read my 8 Monkeys post. (smile)

Here’s part 1 (with links to parts 2-5 below):

Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

People Are Predictable (or Don’t Be A ‘People That Don’t')

January 28th, 2009 @ 1:48 pm - 1 Comment

Every time we get snow, my wife has to deal with people not coming to work. The thing is she’s the big bosswoman and has to make sure shit gets done – so when someone calls off and no one can (or will) cover…it’s up to her and her management team (and others willing to step up) to make it happen.

So the last two days we had snow…and ice.

People started calling off before it even began based solely on weather reports of it coming. More people after it started falling and even more today in the aftermath and cleanup phase.

So my wife and some of the managers are forced to do crazy shit like sleep at the hotel or work 16 hours or get up at 4am and head in to do stuff like serving food or cleaning rooms or taking reservations.

Big deal, they’re the bosses that’s why they get paid what they get paid, right?

Well, sort of. But a lot of people (mostly the kind of people that don’t make any extra effort – like showing up when they call for snow) don’t seem to put the whole process on the table.

Maybe that willingness to come in and pick up the slack is why these people became managers and achieved higher salaries? In fact, I’m 99% sure it is.

The kind of people who do things like that are the kind that become managers with big salaries. The kind who aren’t don’t.

And the funny thing is that those that don’t, don’t seem to get it at all. And when Friday rolls around and those people who came in an worked 16 hour days and slept at their place of employment to make sure they’d be there and things would be taken care of take a three day weekend, you know what the “people who don’t” are all going to say to each other?

“Must be nice to be the boss and take a three day weekend whenever you want.”

People are so predictable.

Note: “people that don’t” also usually complain about how they keep getting screwed in life and how they never get a break or a raise or recognition or anything and can’t understand why others do

My Thoughts On Their Thoughts

January 18th, 2009 @ 1:57 am - 1 Comment

I read Carrie’s blog post the other day and almost posted something of my own because of it several times, but either got distracted, busy or lazy. The I saw more thoughts and even more thoughts being posted and figured I had to chime in now.

Carrie initially asked:

Does what I contribute have any value? Am I offending people with my posts? Do I need to insert more emoticons so folks know when I am kidding?

If I ask myself these three questions I come up with:

1. Probably not to many people.
2. Oh God, I hope so!
3. You can never use too many emoticons.

That’s pretty much my approach to this whole thing. Seriously.

I started this blog because it’s a shame to own lordgonchar.com and do nothing with it. No, that’s not entirely true. I decided to put a blog here because I didn’t have the time, desire or idea for a real website. Isn’t that what a blog is? A website? But not like a real website? Kinda?

I decided to toss my hat into the ring for two reasons really. I liked reading all the blogs of the CampusFish folks and I felt like I wanted a place to be more ‘me’ than I could on coasterimage.com and to a greater extent than I could be on the other forums I post at.

The number of people visiting my little domain here isn’t life changing or even impressive, but it’s an alarmingly high number if you consider what I post here. I pretty much expected a handful of people (mostly those online acquaintances) to swing by once in a while and that’s that. While those online acquaintances might be the ones who actively participate, for each one of theme there’s another dozen or so people swinging by daily and just looking. Some never come back, some do, some keep coming. So that’s cool.

I don’t know what I intended with this blog. Like most things I do in life, I just started doing it and keep seeing where it takes me without any real plan or experience or intention. I like to just go along for the ride a lot in life…but I also like to drive. That’s one thing that makes me me. Defines a bit of my character if you will. I’ll like to get the ball rolling and just see where it rolls to. If it gets boring or old or too dangerous or stupid, I’ll get off. If not, I ride until it does.

Just a chance to publicly be me, I guess.

If something along the way strikes someone as funny or entertaining or insightful or useful or informative or fascinating or whatever – just makes a little moment in their lives – then I guess that’s all I can ask for. And that’s cool. Oddly enough, I think that also sums up much of my approach to life in general.

What’s really weird is that the interaction I have here comes solely from my ‘online’ life. (and Carrie touches on that a little in her original post) I’m a little weird in that my ‘online’ and ‘real world’ lives rarely cross paths. All you have to do is look at the people posting here or the blogs I link to and you’ll see it’s mostly people that I don’t see in ‘real life’ too often. Not never, but not too often. But perhaps even more strangely, they’re people I talk with frequently.

On the flip side, if you met my real-world friends you’d find a bunch of people that probably don’t even know lordgonchar.com exists. Hell, I don’t even think my wife knows I bother having a blog…but she almost certainly knows everything that ends up getting posted here anyway.

So a little like Jeff says in his post, I do blog towards a specific part of my life – a certain audience of friends and acquaintances with whom I enjoy sharing things and debating ideas and talking about shit.

I post as an entertainer, a friend, an informer, just a guy. Whatever might be something to someone…or nothing to no one.

Most importantly, I don’t take it too seriously. Life’s too short. I post shit here that I want to post publicly. If people want to gawk at it, then we all win.

TV Is Almost Over As We Know It

December 9th, 2008 @ 2:54 pm - 2 Comments

Jay Leno moving to the 10pm slot (story) is the second sign that TV in the traditional sense is done. (the first was the proliferation of the reality genre) (v1.5 was the rise of quality programming on ‘pay’ networks like HBO and SHO)

There really is very little new scripted entertainment coming to us via free television anymore and much of it is crap to begin with. Most of the good scripted entertainment comes online…often from people who also deliver it via TV or the big screen as well…or from pay sources.

Entertainment is going to completely new places…probably sooner than later…as the line between different entertainment outlets continue to blur. Watching TV will be like going to YouTube – tons of content provided by people on all levels (the entire spectrum from kids in bedrooms to what used to be network production) and watching what you want when you want.

Entertainment has become so fragmented and personalized that it’s almost crazy. The days of entertainment-based watercooler talk must certainly be numbered. The days of a music artist dominating the charts and being universally enjoyed are already gone. I think the idea of everybody being in on something is valuable in ways and will be sad to see that go. TV with it’s scheduled, scripted programming was one of the last places this took place – people watching the same thing at the same time in large numbers and all being on the same page. But even that’s slowly been eroding with things like On Demand and DVR’s and the internet.

We’re heading towards a place where everyone can be (and is) famous to some degree. We’re all celebrities in a world where people we don’t know follow what we do via blogs or YouTube vids or whatever. People are famous just for being personalities with no discernable skill. When the technologies merge, you’ll have your next big star doing a show from their basement. Warhol was right. Way more right than seemed possible even just a few years ago.

People seem to be content watching people – like some kind of weird electronic zoo.

I guess it makes sense if you think about it.

Not sure if I have a point or just wanted to write some loosely related shallow thoughts on the state of entertainment.

What’s funny is now NBC will run ‘talk shows’ from 10pm until 2am with Leno, O’Brien, Fallon and Daly and they need more famous bodies than ever to fill the seats – luckily, we’re all stars.

Projections, Hillary and More Generational Junk

November 4th, 2008 @ 10:44 pm - 9 Comments

I posted a while back about how I hate the projections that the various news outlets do.

Tonight not only confirmed my hatred, but also my apathy towards the system in general.

Many states were being projected the moment the polls closed. The news outlets were just waiting for the clock to run out so they could call the winner. And in pretty much every case in the history of journalism (with the exception of Florida in 2000) they’ve been correct.

When you know who won a state the moment the polls close, it’s hard not to think the whole system was bought, sold and decided a long time ago.

Seriously, when those paying attention can say, “Not a vote has been counted, but we all know who’s winning this one” then I’m more convinced than ever that the systems of election are just a formality.

Hell, if you’ve been watching this race the last few weeks is anything that happened tonight surprising in any way?

—

On the bright side, at least the Democrats were smart enough to not let Hillary anywhere near this thing…and an Obama win blocks her out for 2012 too.

—

And just for Jeff (smile), I found it interesting that CNN discussed quite a bit about the Generational aspect of this election with Gen Y really coming out and voting and how Obama was a part of Gen Jones and falling between the Boomers and Gen X and a general changing of times. I do believe Gen Y made this happen for Obama – they’re the new Boomers ( actually rreferred to often as Echo Boomers – and now I ‘get’ it). Those of us inbetween are destined to be adapters – we had to play into the Boomers society and in the future (starting now really) we have a generation with the numbers to influence everything and we’ll be playing into the society they create in the next decades.

I think that way because I don’t feel I really identify with either. The Boomers were our stodgy parents & authority figures and the Gen Y Trophy Kids (as I’ve said) feels a lot like a spoiled generation to me.

I dunno, just a side thought that kinda flowed as I typed.

Answering Life’s Questions

October 8th, 2008 @ 2:16 pm - 1 Comment

Carrie has questions. I have answers.

  • As soon as it starts breaking in half, it’s gone.
  • Because all greeting cards are lame.
  • I think it works the same as it does for birds.
  • I don’t know what a Yoplait Whips! is.

    • I’m am full of wisdomy goodness.

    Picking A Hood Ornament

    October 3rd, 2008 @ 4:07 pm - 1 Comment

    This is a response I posted on Jeff’s blog. I just felt like sharing it here too.

    Jeff asked:
    “Who do you want to be president?”

    Obama. McCain. You. Me. The corpse of Anna Nicole Smith. A christams ham. A nice hat. Whoever.

    It doesn’t matter. I honestly believe that.

    If you want my take on the players:

    - McCain is a shell of the man who should’ve been nominated over Bush in 2000.

    - Obama is little more than charisma and goodwill and fuzzy bunnies.

    - Biden strikes me as another faceless, white-haired career politician who I’m not even interested in knowing more about.

    - Palin is a nutjob from Alaska who was in the right place at the right time and inspires dirty thoughts.

    I wish I cared. I wish I believed it mattered. But I don’t. I’m only half-joking when I saying I think a ‘regular guy’ would be best. I think the only requirement to be president should be that you’ve never formally held office prior to election.

    I’m not sure what my point is. As long as we keep doing the same old, same old – we’ll keep getting the same old same old. And three of the four names above are the same old, same old. The fourth is just kinda the same…and inspires dirty thoughts.

    “You’re such a jaded poopy pants, Gonch.”

    I have to defend this a lot, but I still insist I’m a realist.

    Jaded
    : made dull, apathetic, or cynical by experience

    Realism
    : accurate representation without idealization

    Ok, so maybe it’s a little from both columns. (smile)

    I find the idea of ‘making a great team’ and moving into Washington to get things done to be laughable at best. It doesn’t work that way – it hasn’t since I’ve been alive – and it probably never really has.

    The idea of being president, the campagning, the election, the whole process is pure pageantry. You get to be the hood ornament that sits atop the engine that does all the real work.

    Because He’s Black

    September 17th, 2008 @ 2:52 pm - 1 Comment

    Saw this over on Tyler’s blog:

    Abortion Issue Again Dividing Catholic Votes – NYTimes.com
    It is frustration to read people basing their votes on one factor. The article even touches on race based decision. The quote about the “Black House” is sickening but I know of family members that would say the same.

    Which made me think of a statistic I saw spouted on CNN the other day and wanted to pass along, but forgot until this mental reminder:

    22% of African-Americans polled (in whatever poll they cited) said they were voting for Obama because he’s black (or something similar, my number may be off) and a google search will find plenty of people saying the same thing. The point is that there’s people that are voting Obama because of his race just like there are people not voting for him for the same reason.

    So this leads me to the obvious question:

    Does not voting for Obama based on his race make you silly, backwards and ignorant? In turn, does voting for him based on his race make you just as silly, backwards and ignorant?

    What if we look at it from the inverse?

    If you’re voting for Obama because he’s black, then are you not voting for McCain because he’s white? In turn, if you’re not voting for Obama because he’s black then are you voting for McCain because he’s white?

    What if the election were between two black men? What if it were between two white men? What about people voting for McCain just because Palin is a woman? What about people not voting for McCain because Palin is a woman?

    I’m not sure I have any answers. All I know is that I think it’s ok to vote for (or against) whoever you choose for whatever reason you choose. Whatever makes sense to you. Whatever is important to you – even if that’s one factor. Is there much difference in having one factor (race, stance on abortion, opinion on Iraq, etc) that decides it period or going through all the issues one by one and in the end agreeing with each candidate on several issues and one essentially being the tiebreaker?

    I’m pretty sure I would’ve voted for Abe Lincoln just because he had a beard. In fact, I’d vehemently support any candidate with facial hair because it’s be cool. Not enough officials get elected on the facial hair swing vote.

    Then again, it wasn’t enough to make me like Hillary. (bah dum ching!)

    Teach To Solve or Teach To Find

    September 10th, 2008 @ 12:55 pm - 8 Comments

    Carrie posted a link to this story today. The story itself is interesting, but it’s one of the comments to that story that really got me thinking:

    Why would a professor give an exam for which the answer can be found by using Google or ChaCha? For example, the only reason to ask someone the square root of 323 is to see if they know how to use standard tools (calculators, spreadsheets, Google) to find it. The exception is if the class is something like calculus and the student is being tested on approximation by using numerical methods or a series – and in that case, the professor needs to see the student’s work; she or he does not care very much about the actual value. When students are working in the real world, all the tools are available, so why make students memorize something that can be looked up in three minutes? All tests should be open-book tests, constructed so that the student can use the textbook, class notes, Google, and any other reference tool. Then test for thought process and methodology. We should no longer be teaching facts to memorize.

    Interesting, huh? I have to admit that after reading that, I think it makes sense. I might even agree with it…which is weird because it’s almost suggesting that we teach kids to find the answer, not the solution. Does that makes sense?

    Think of it in terms of something like a video game. Maybe there’s aparticularly challenging sequence or something. You could spend a lot of time using trial and error and improving your skills and work your way through it or you could jump online or pick up a magazine or call a friend and get a walkthough showing you how to get through. In both cases the end result is the same, but the method for getting there is vastly different.

    The whole thing is even weirder to me because when we first moved to the area and my daughter started school in the fall, they used some form of ‘new math’ that we hadn’t seen taught in any of the previous schools she attended. My exact comment at the time after seeing how they did things was, “They teach the kids to find the answer, not solve the equation.”

    I wish I had an example for you, but one is escaping me right now and, oddly enough, the following year they went back to a more traditional method of teaching math.

    I guess my point is that I’m torn on the issue. I completely see where the comment I quoted above is coming from, but on the same note still think it’s important to find the solution, not the answer. If we all learn to find the answer, then who is going to find the solution to tell us the answer in the future? (I just blew yer mind!)

    On a secondary level, I think it also loosely ties to an idea Jeff touched on in one of his recent posts about the upcoming election:

    We don’t have an excuse to be ignorant, but we are anyway. I suppose that in a world where reality TV is watched obsessively, ads that make stuff up or stray from issues work because people find that easier to digest than reading about issues. But what happens when the wisdom of crowds is based on sound bites and charged feelings?

    In other words, what happens when people are taught to look for an answer rather than taught to find the solution.

    Am I stretching too much there or does someone else see the parallels that I do?

    Well Played

    August 7th, 2008 @ 1:09 pm - No Comments

    Neuski:

    I just checked if I was on “this list” of coworkers getting the first round of MacBook Pros. My source was a little unsure. If I’m not number 5 of 5, then I’m number 6. Apparently there are other people that work here who deserve them more than me! I know! I couldn’t believe it either.

    Nicely done. :)

    I Must Be Out Of Touch

    August 7th, 2008 @ 12:40 am - 6 Comments

    Another off-site rant about a CoasterBuzz thread. (smile)

    I’m pretty sure I’m out of touch. I’m just not sure in which direction. Am I so right that it hurts or am I so wrong that it’s embarassing? Either way, threads that I’d traditionally jump into with claws extracted just don’t seem worth it lately – mostly because somebody doesn’t get it. That somebody might be me, I’m not sure.

    Here’s the thread.

    It’s not even really Jeff’s inital post, but rather the replies and overall tone. To put it bluntly, I couldn’t disagree with the masses any more than if they were saying black and I proclaimed white.

    Is park food overpriced? Yup. It always has been. Is it any worse now than before? I don’t think so. Are people really paying this price or are most people like the folks that post on an enthusiast forum who avoid paying these prices at all costs? I think enough people are paying to validate the pricing…and that’s kind of all that matters.

    In the short run at least.

    Then again, I’m not exactly convinced that it hurts in the long run either. But I digress.

    I didn’t want to post my side of things here. I’d just do that in the actual CoasterBuzz thread and get everyone riled up and the thread would go a dozen pages. I wanted to speculate on the bigger picture – the ‘out of touch’ aspect of it all.

    CoasterBuzz is unique in that among enthusiast forums the business side of things get discussed more than pretty much anywhere else. The catch is that it’s a whole lot of people with little credentials for talking the business side of things. Myself included.

    Any business acumen I have may have accidentally acquired has been from my wife and mostly by osmosis. :)

    However, the business in question would be the hospitality industry with is like a cousin to the theme park industry (or some relative analogy).

    On top of that I think I have four traits that lend creedence to my point of view:

    1. I’m a regular patron of amusement parks and have been for quite a while.
    2. I’m a part of a pathetically middle-class family.
    3. I’m a pretty bright guy.
    4. I believe I tend to see the ‘big picture’ more than most.

    (Great, I just described myself like pretty much anyone would, right?)

    So as someone who has a wife that runs a hotel, I don’t really think very much of the business approach that so often draws criticism is really out of line based on my second-hand, untrained, sideline observer knowledge of the hotel industry in various markets over the past 12 or 15 years. What I think the truth is, is that people don’t like to see the curtain pulled back. They don’t like knowing they’re just a number…a body to sustain the machine. It’s easier to visit the park and see the smiles and think they care. And hell, they might even care. It’s entirely possible to care and still see the customer as a number.

    However you look at it, I think it’s hard for people to see that something they love so much and that plays such a big part of their lives doesn’t love them back nearly as much as they hoped.

    They just want your money. They can go about getting it a number of ways…and they do.

    I happen to find that side of it interesting. Perhaps it’s my nature? Perhaps it hits close to home because I hear my wife talk about work and she sounds a lot like I’d imagine the corporations behind these parks would sound if they actaully posted to the forums like the enthusiasts? (and I don’t mean park PR people – they’re essentially professional liars) Perhaps it’s both? Perhaps it’s another reason that’s not jumping to mind quickly enough for me to type here?

    At any rate, I’m not naive enough to think otherwise and I’m ballsy enough to look it right in the face, tear it apart, figure it out and even celebrate it. How primal of me.

    I’m not generally looking at it from the customer POV because that’d be boring and predictable. Obviosuly as a customer I want as much as I can get for as little. There’s nothing to discuss. All the entertainment comes from the business tryng to get the customer to give up more. That’s the game here.

    But to read the enthusiast forums, I think I’m out of touch.

    Now if I am forced to see it from the boring side, I still somehow come to the same conclusion. Probably because of my penchant for seeing it the other way first.

    I visit a lot of theme parks, amusement parks, entertainment locations, fun centers – whatever you want to call them each year. I’m certainly a customer of the industry.

    I visit these places with my family. My pathetically average middle class family with two kids, two cars & credit card debt. A cul-de-sacs, soccer mom neighbors, making small talk with other parents, loading up the car for vacation, playing taxi for afterschool activites, seemingly not having enough time in the day family.

    Average folk living an average life. Everything I never wanted to be when I was 20. Woe is me, right?

    Anyway, my sadly middle-of-the-road family visits these parks and while we occasionally might even say, “Wow. Can you believe what that costs?” we still buy it. Is it steep? Sure. Is it a deal breaker? No. Do I see other pathetically average moms and dads and kids doing the same? Yes. Do the pathetically average moms and dads and kids I talk to tend to do the same? Yes.

    My experience. My tendencies. The experience and tendencies I observe. The stories I hear. The people I see. The people I know. All guilty of letting the parks do business this way.

    But again, I read the forums and think I must be out of touch.

    I don’t think I even have a point beyond the fact that I feel like it’s not worth jumping into the conversation most times anymore – the same kind of conversations I generally love to dig into and get a good debate and exchange of ideas and viewpoints going.

    Is amusement park food generally crap? Yes.
    Is it generally overpriced? Yes.

    It’s always been that way. That’s pretty much the amusement park experience.

    Generational Interest

    August 1st, 2008 @ 11:09 pm - No Comments

    So the Gen Y thing took on a whole new life over on Jeff’s blog. I think it’s just to the point where there’s nothing left to add. Both sides have stated their case.

    Carrie put sort of an afterthought on her blog and I generally liked it (and agree). I too find this sort of thing of great interest (if I could go back in time knowing what I know now, it’d make for an interesting field of study – I tend to be interested in what makes people the way they are because I believe you have to know where you’re coming from to understand where you’re headed).

    In fact that’s where my little Gen Y rants come from – my interest of such things. Even though I generally don’t do the Wikipedia thing much, I just love this page. Just reading through it gets my mind racing. I want to dig in and find out more. I want to quantify, classify and put everything (everyone?) in their neat little place on the shelf. It’s the key to the big picture as far as I’m concerned. All the answers I need are in there somewhere.

    I’m not even sure what that means. I think it’s a fascinating subject and one that could be most useful. I guess Carie said it better:

    The act of studying behavior for trends is nothing more than studying a road map. It is fair to say that many, if not most, will travel a certain path given when they enter and exit the highway. It doesn’t mean they have to or definitely will. But understanding the likelihood gives you a much better idea of how to manage the traffic and guide folks along the way.

    But yeah, these fucking kids expect the world.