All-American Girl

Came across this on Saturday Night Live...perhaps its best to just let the music do the talking.

An Ode To Best Buy

I LOVE ELECTRONICS!

There, I have admitted it. I believe that is one of the tenets in any recovery program, to admit the problem. So now the healing can begin. Seriously though, I have always liked to try and get the most out of any form of entertainment I have, as long as I didn't go broke in the process or try and get over my head technical-wise. While my love for all things electronic is deep, I have never committed the time to become an "Expert" in the field. I usually followed two guidelines when I wanted something: (1) Does it sound good, and (2) Does it look good doing it?

That line of reasoning worked well when I was younger swapping stereos in my cars, or those of my friends. As time progressed and things got more expensive and technology more complex, I found I couldn't afford to just buy things that looked good, they needed to last and perform well. It was time to stop judging the books by the covers...after all, I'm not in a bar and its not 2am!

So I started to rely heavily on "User Reviews" that can be found on a lot of websites. CNET has a good amount of them, along with Editors Ratings for products they have investigated. EPINIONS is a good source for product reviews by consumers, and the mother of all review sites for unbiased looks is of course CONSUMER REPORTS. Recently BEST BUY started to include product reviews on their website along with a 1-5 scale for rating products.

So when I found myself with some as-of-yet unused gift cards, and a 12% off coupon for certain purchases courtesy of the Best Buy Reward Zone program, I started to look at the Sunday circular with a bit more curious eye. But what to get was the question...my iPOD was less than a year old, but boy that new iPOD touch looked nice. Our digital camera is still serving us well, and thanks to Jeffy, I am getting better pictures from it. My car stereo works just fine and has all the bells and whistles I need. Our living room would seem a bit more empty if I up and replaced our Toshiba rear-projection TV. We are Vista-enabled, so a new pc was out. And my Wii console will not go out of style for a long time.

While I'm sure Katie will soon share my joy in these things, her fun at Best Buy amounts to going there and "playing" the pianos on display, and while that will be a worthwhile purchase in the near future, I had gift cards and a coupon that expired soon burning a hole in my pocket. The one thing I could "justify" getting was a new TV in our bedroom, as that Zenith 27" tube model chewed up a good amount of real estate on the floor. Also when I come home at night from work and watch SportsCenter to unwind, the height of the stand made it impossible to watch without lying towards the foot of the bed to see the whole screen.

So with that in mind I had been on the lookout for a new TV that would be good as a second set, but still have some of the features I wanted. Price had to be foremost in the equation, followed by functionality and reliability. I had looked at a couple models over the past weeks, but neither had gotten good reviews from the sources I checked. The current ad had a nice selection, and I found one that was right in the price range I wanted, along with the features I needed.

Ah, but what about the reviews? At the time I decided on this particular model there were 80 reviews in and only 8 rated it less than a "4". Having read all 80, I decided that for what I wanted and how I would use it, this was a good deal. I also referred to Cnet which gave it a good reference. Epinions had nothing and I didn't check Consumer Reports. The one I finally settled on was this one. New TV

The Dynex brand is the house brand for Best Buy, along with Insignia. From what I was able to glean online, they are either a hybrid of Sony and Samsung parts, or made by LG. All of which make exceptional flat-panels. One of the better things about this model is that it is "Digital Ready" so when the switch to all digital broadcasting is made next year, I will not need a set-top box to convert the signals. For now I am content to use the cable direct from the wall, and still get the HD feeds from Time-Warner for my local channels. Maybe if they add more HD to their lineup I will get a box for this one, or if I catch a deal for a second box free change my current cable plan. But otherwise it is great for its current use. The HD is crystal-clear, and DVDs look super on it.

HA HA

Each morning I enjoy reading the local paper with a nice hot cup of coffee. If I'm lucky I get to do this in a relatively quiet dining room, if I get up before Katie, who for some reason just can't seem to relate to my little indulgence.

The design of the Akron Beacon Journal is great...Section A is World and National news, B is Local, C is Sports and Business, and D is Entertainment. Which works great for me because I love reading the comics last. Sort of like saving the cherry from your ice cream sundae until the end. The Sunday paper of course is an exception, given all the ads and such. On that day its either the comics I read last, or the Best Buy circular depending on how I feel...but either way its still a treat!

I've had several "favorite" comics over the years, Bloom County(which morphed into Outland then Opus), Calvin and Hobbes, and Foxtrot. Crankshaft and Funky Winkerbean(by local artist Tom Batiuk(rhymes with attic)) have been must-reads for me also. Funky having drawn national attention recently for having one of its main characters die in the strip has been one of the few comics that show age progression of its characters instead of being "frozen" in time...I mean come on shouldn't PJ be out of that sleeper by now??

My current favorite strip is Get Fuzzy, which just works on so many levels for me. Its not for everyone, because admittedly the first few times I read it I didn't get it, but in keeping at it I found it to be well worth my time. A recent addition to the Beacon is Pearls Before Swine which is sort of a thought-out "Far Side" in my eyes and can be quite acerbic at times.

And in closing I offer up today's strip.

Growing Up

This weekend my son Alex came home for a visit from school. He is enrolled in the Transportation Technology program at Owens Community College in Toledo Ohio. This is his first time away from home, and the trips home every other weekend help keep the homesickness to a minimum.

Not having one iota of knowledge on how to be a Father when he was born, I just sort of went about it the best way I knew how and on more than one occasion fell way short of the goal as he was growing up. But the one thing that remained constant was my hope that when he grew up, he would not make the mistakes I did, and have more good times than bad.

In playing sports Alex has always been exceptional, with soccer being his best. But it doesn't matter if we are shooting hoops in my driveway or ending up at the local bowling alley to have some fun, this kid can just pick up whatever it is and do it great.

When he was turning 16 and the time came to want to drive, he went out and got 2 summer jobs to buy his first car. His full-time job was working in the maintenance department in the Township he lived in, and the second job, which was part-time he bussed tables at a local restaurant. At the end of the summer he was the owner of a 1995 Nissan Sentra SE-R and took great pride that he bought and paid for it on his own. That vehicle served him well, but making the drive from Brimfield to Toledo every other week was starting to take its toll, and it was recently passed on to his brother Kevin, who just turned 16 this summer and will be embarking on his own quest for employment soon to be able to support whatever teenagers these days call important.

So the question at hand was what does a 20 year old college student do when they need a new form of transportation but don't have all the cash to secure said wheels? In addition to going to school, Alex also works for the school in their maintenance department and has enough of an income to pay his rent and have spending money. So during his time home last month, he went to his bank, talked to the loan department and was told that given his income to expense ratio he could get a loan for a vehicle at payments that wouldn't break his bank.

With that knowledge in hand, he quickly went to work to find a vehicle in that price range that he liked. At the end of the search he took a liking to a 1998 Chevy S-10 4X4 ZR-2 pickup. I was a little skeptical given the asking price compared to what I was finding online for similarly equipped vehicles, but to give him credit Alex did a thorough job looking the vehicle over and then negotiating price. Most importantly, he is happy with the purchase and when I had the chance to look the truck over this weekend, I think he did an outstanding job.

As I watched him drive away from my place Sunday night, I thought to myself "20 years old, away in college, working at the same time and just took on his first installment loan". I know I wasn't at that point 22 years ago, so I guess in wanting your child to do better than you did in life, so far that boy is above the bar.

As you can see from the picture, I took it while it was raining and I'm sure those were raindrops on my face as I walked back to my house.

Birthday Pictures

Well, it was that time again. Off we went to our local photography studio to have Katie's birthday pictures taken. Our studio of choice is called Picture People and they are conveniently located in the mall right up the road from where we live.

Since we were there last, they have made major improvements in the way they take the pictures and then display the proofs. Before, the cameras were mounted on mobile poles which limited how you could pose and the photographers range of shots were pretty standard. They now use digital cameras and get right down level with the subject.

They used to take the pictures and tell you to come back in an hour when they would have about 5 sets of pictures ready for viewing. Usually an 8x10, (2) 5x7s, and a sheet of wallet sized pictures per set. You could mix and match to make up a set, but it always seemed that the really good ones that you wanted an extra 8x10 of had to be reprinted which made the waiting times longer. All in all a fairly wasteful thing in my eyes because while I'm sure there were people with kids who thought "Oh no, if I don't buy all these they will throw away pictures of my dear sweet baby" the majority of customers weren't that flush with cash. I mean come on, this isn't Olan Mills we are talking about here.

Now however, since the process is all digital, you return after about 15 minutes and sit down in front of a huge Dell flat panel monitor and you can pick and choose the pictures you want, the suitable sizes, and an assortment of effects can be applied. Of course the standard set is still one 8x10, two 5x7, and the sheet of wallets. But for the inevitable "Oh, so-and-so HAS to have this one in a (insert size), the wait time is decreased.

Shrewd marketers they are, they still trot out one or two pictures in frames they hope to sell at what I'm sure is a HUGE mark-up.

Which brings us to the picture at the top of this post. They brought it out in a really nice frame, complete with a mat, and its called the Gallery piece, and the picture is actually 10x20 instead of the 10x13 we opted for. When we saw it, we knew that one was a keeper but figured we could do the matting and framing ourselves. That project has yet to take shape, but the picture is currently hanging nicely on our dining room wall.

If I do have one negative thing to say about the studio, it would be that apparently the only taste they have is in their mouths. Last year we entered Katie in the 2 year old category for the chains "Cutest Kid" contest and each store picked a finalist from the previous weeks sitting to be submitted to the headquarters for further judging. I'm convinced the stores decision was solely based on who bought the biggest set of pictures, because I saw the finalist's picture for that week and there was no way she was cuter than Katie. Not that I'm biased or anything....

Then vs Now

I came home from work last night and saw the latest flyer from Katie's daycare was a brochure from Scholastic Book Service. I was surprised to say the least to see Scholastic was still around selling books. I remember when I was in school I was a very voracious reader and always had a book to read in study hall after I knocked any homework out. Up until about the 6th grade I got all my books from Scholastic and the days when our teacher passed out the newest flyer were like individual Christmases for me!! In the 6th grade I made the transition to "grown-up" books, and the first one I read was a 666 page paperback titled "Rich Man Poor Man" by Irwin Shaw and is still one of my favorites to this day.

So as I was going through the flyer that Katie bought home I saw it was the October 2007 issue and had some Halloween titles in it. They had "Skeleton Hiccups", "The Littlest Pumpkin", "Happy Halloween Stinky Face", and of course the edge-of-your-seat spine-tingler "Care Bears - The Great Big Pumpkin". I was amused at these to say the least, and had to wonder if there are now separate selection forms for different age groups. Because when I was a kid, the selections offered were a bit more spooky at this time of year.

I thought back to one of the stories I could remember a line from, and thanks to the magic of Google was able to find it. It was a little poem by Theodore Roethke titled "The Bat". Which then set me off to find out if the book could be found still, and I did locate a copy which will be headed my way in the near future. It was a volume called "The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales". Even the cover is sort of retro-Gothic which you may be able to see from the picture above. Not quite as feel good as "Room On The Broom" for today's youth is it?

Read if you will another selection from this tome titled "The Velvet Ribbon" and imagine if this was put in a book offered for sale by a book company catering to kids today. I wonder if it would even be scary to the pre-adolescent set? All I know is that in 1974 there was a certain 9 year-old who had the heebie jeebies every time he read that book, but couldn't help but read it over and over.

Now if I can only find out about this old commercial that I swore used to run around Halloween time involving a kid on a bike, a spooky house and Cracker Jacks.

Taste of Cleveland

Last night I went to the 12th annual "Taste of Cleveland" at the Time Warner Cable Amphitheatre at Tower City(that was more of a mouthful than some of the food I ate). This was my first time at the TOC, as I was there primarily for the Michael Stanley and the Resonators show at the end of the night.

Having been to more than my fair share of events in downtown Cleveland I had a pretty good idea how long it would take to get there, where to park and such. What I wasn't prepared for was the bottleneck of traffic that happened about 5 miles before my exit onto East 9th Street! As it turned out, there was 4 different events going on downtown and half the population of Summit and Cuyahoga counties were trying to get to them. In addition to the TOC, the Indians were taking on the White Sox, Akron U and Army were playing at Browns Stadium and the Air Show was going on at Burke Lakefront Airport. Not wanting to be sniffing exhaust any longer than needed I exited the Interstate on East 55th Street and figured I would just cut down Carnegie for the shortcut...that diversion proved interesting to say the least. Saw some parts of Cleveland I had only heard of before.

But at any rate once I arrived safely and parked, the aroma of food wafting through the air cured any regret I had about my travels. The array of food had me wondering where to begin, so I settled on a gyro that had more meat in it that I thought was possible, and a plate of "spiral fries" which was a potato sliced in one continuous motion and then deep-fried...which reminds me I think I am due for a cholesterol check...and what better way to wash it all down than with an ice-cold Budweiser. Later on after meeting with some of my fellow forum members, I had some barbecued ribs that while not as good as some I have had, went quite well with another Bud I found!!

Once the concert began, all thoughts of food were erased from my mind and I settled in to enjoy some great music. I have seen Michael Stanley live more times than I can remember starting back in 1980 and in about 4 different incarnations of a "group" but each show never fails to deliver on what I've come to expect...songs I know all the lyrics to, tight showmanship, and an occasional surprise thrown in. The surprise this time was a cover of "Purple Rain" which was done quite well. I have long thought Michael a talented songwriter, and the between song banter always brings a smile to my face.

All the major songs of his career were well represented, as well as some of the newest ones which went over quite well. In recognition of the fact most of the crowd came for the "oldies" and perhaps not in favor of the new ones, Michael said "You know, at one time Lover was a new song. My Town was new, and if I didn't play the new stuff you'd be stuck with me playing this for two hours", before launching into a great "Rosewood Bitters".

After the show, I still had some of the "coupons" you used for the food leftover and since they could not be redeemed back for cash, I found a vendor still open selling pastries. Bought a couple chocolate-chip cannolies and chocolate eclairs that were out-of-this world!! And if I had one regret it was that I wasn't able to save one to enjoy with my morning coffee.

I have posted some of the pictures here, and would like to thank my friend Jeff for offering me some advice on getting better shots with my camera. I normally used the "Auto" mode and at times got very poor quality pictures if it wasn't outside in bright sunlight. He told me to experiment with the PASM settings and the "Scene" function and see what that brought. I have yet to get comfortable knowing the appropriate settings for my shots, but happened to try taking some in the "Sport" mode which turned out pretty good.