Guttenberg has got nothing on this.

Article by Chadwick:

I went apartment shopping today. I had in previous days researched on the internet and narrowed my prospects down to a promising few. Within the first few hours my hopes were crushed by the reality that my instincts at picking apartments sucked.

  I brought along with me a small pad of paper to take notes on. I did this for three reasons: A.)I am very forgetful, B.) I have a bad memory, and C.)I love to repeat information. It was at the third apartment I visited this morning that I was struck by something. My notepad was having a profound impact on the salesmanship of the apartment reps. I would begin writing and suddenly their apathetic transmission became an Atticus Finch-inspired treatise on closet space.

Having been not half as impressed with the last apartment as I was with its employees, I decided it was time to get some lunch. Today’s selection: Instanbul Cafe, a Turkish restaurant (and proudly so). I was greeted as could be expected in any restaurant. Without flare or urgency I was led to my table. Yet as I sat there and began to review my notes I noticed a distinct shift in the service I was given. Disinterested waiters now were sensitive to my every whim in a manner that can only be compared to singing plates in a Disney film.

The notepad’s power was in full sight for me, and all who served me, to see

…and it was glorious.

My mind alowed itself to spill over the possiblities: A crowded restaurant on a Friday night and in walks yours truly.

“It will be 45 mintues to an hour”, she would say in words like bullets. I would give an unimpressed look and let out a subtle and dismayed “hmm” as I pulled out my notepad and began to write.

I would be seated before I could even finish writing, “suckers”.

There are, of course, a few bad situations for using the notepad. Dating, for instance, might bear some unsavory results if one were to conduct table talk like a white house press conference.

I imagine that watching home movies with Roger Ebert might be a little unsettling, but I bet you’ll think twice about the way you light your shot next time.

Hey I have an Idea…

So let’s start a site called Kenucs… Let’s start a podcast… Let’s make our own movie… sketch comedy… card game… fuel source… brand of liquid cheese product…

It is truly frightening the number of ideas we at Kenucs have cooked up over the years.  What really makes me wonder is what happened to them?  Are we the greatest example of how to not follow through on something we come up with?  Or are we simply thinking about the loved ones we would scare away if our “talks” were made into something more?  It probably is just as simple as us not following through, but what if we did?  Would it be so bad to try?  Maybe it would be bad.  Maybe we would not see each other the same way again.  It would be hard to look each other in the eye.  We would tell our children’s children stories of the friends we used to have and warn them of following through with their creative thoughts.  Or we would make something great. At least something funny.  Then our tales would pass to future generations.  Causing uncomfortable-side-aching laughter for all.  Or at least for all that dare to listen. I believe in the power of our collective creativity.  I believe we can produce something amazing.  At the very least amazing to us! 

Keep the thoughts and ideas brewing…  Do not toss them aside…  Let’s make fun again! 

And if you need some inspiration or have thoughts that our creative genius will go nowhere…

drive over to TC on a cool Friday night in the fall… 

Shut off the car and roll down the windows… 

Try not to breathe too loudly… 

And listen for our love child to call out to her anonymous composers…

European Autumn in F…

Star Craft 2 Announced!

I can do this no greater justice than simply to link to the blog covering it as it unfolds! It’s official folks, Blizzard has unviled what SC2 is all about and oh my lord does it look amazing!

Go HERE!

UPDATE

Blizzard has the official StarCraft II website up and running, check it out, especially the new cinematic intro!

Hip-Hop & Country: An Unlikely Comparison.

It might seem a curious thing to say, but Hip-Hop and Country are more alike than you might think. While the average country fan might be more up in arms about that statement than they would be after a Dixie Chicks concert — hear me out.

Both genres are lyrically focused. Yes, both do indeed have their own musical styles as well. But the driving force behind any good country ballad are lyrics that people can relate to: “I was driving momma home from jail in my pickup truck, when suddenly ran over my dog named Buck” …Ok. So maybe those lyrics aren’t easy to relate to, but the average country single is. That is exactly the appeal of country music to its fans: the singer isn’t talking about something foreign or unknown. He (or she) is almost always relating to the people who listen to country music, but — what’s more — they are relating to their liseteners on the listeners own terms. The music is contextualized so that the listener can even more easily understand the concepts the singer is trying to get across.

If I grew up on a ranch in Montana the music of John Denver might mean a little more to me, but I didn’t. I grew up in Indiana. Thus, there is nothing more foreign to me than songs about mountains.

Context is important to genres so that they can relate to people, but what is so unique to both hip-hop and country is that they are two genres that are totally rooted in contexts based on race, place, and class. Think about it: where does Rap music come from? Where did it originate? In urban areas with concentrated black populations — most of which were working class. Country music? In rural areas with concentrated (but spread out) white populations — most of which were, gasp, working class.

Hip-hop is felt by the black community as something it identifies with, something that belongs to that community. It is much more than genre of music — it is a form of identification. The same can be said about country music. It is a genre primarily identified with by the NASCAR dads of America — the rural, white, working class citizen.

So what do these two have in common? They’re the same genre with a different face. It’s the same idea, the same shared sense of identity — just amongst two different groups. In a sense, Rap is the working man’s music for black America, while country is the white working man’s music.

Exceptions can be made, I’m sure. There are Eminems and there are Nick Turners, but by and large the two genres belong to two very distinct and specific groups defined by their race and place. Even though many people thought it odd that Tim McGraw and Nelly might do a duo together — it just makes perfect sense.

MMO’s finding more ways to keep you playing!

I am not usually someone who will rag on smart marketing or gaming in general, but I recently discovered a combination of the two that just struck me as wow! pun intended :>

Introducing the World of Warcraft Visa Credit Card, is what I read as I started playing one of my favorite MMO’s earlier today. It was called rewards Visa, and naturally I was curious to find out if this was exactly what it sounded like, or something new different and more exciting?

Truth be told, its that same old customer loyalty card deal, now added to one your favorite online hobbies. The scary part is that I actually glazed over it for a few minutes, checking out all the apr’s no annual fee’s and other perks be for finally snapping out of it! What would I need another credit card for? Besides they made a big mistake on the very fist page with this:

“Complete details, including restrictions, limitations, and exclusions, will be available when you become a Cardmember.”

Sorry Blizzard I love what you make, but your third party friends violated my upfront and honest policy I have with everything I purchase, if I don’t know exactly what I’m getting your wasting my time. Besides I’m not a heavy purchaser, how much playtime does 1% of every dollar translate into? We need charts and graphs!

Final thoughts

I wish this was added to my existing card to be honest, I wish alot of these promo deals could just be added to one card. You start out when your 18 or something with a brand new basic card, then as you get older you can either earn cool features or buy them onto your personalized credit account. No more of this card per every single vendor in the universe crap, I don’t care if they all get access to the same database and know everything about my purchasing habits.( They already share this anywasys!) I just want to get rid of all these pocket intense plastic hip sores and have One Card to rule or rid them all!

Rumors of a new ipod hit the market.

If they haven’t already looked it up from the computer in their mother’s basement, most tech geeks will be salivating by the time they get done reading the latest rumors about apple’s newest ipod. 

 

The new model (it is rumored) will be primarily for use with videos, but will play all types of media, including music.  The coolest part, in my opinion, is that the classic “click wheel” dissapears and reappers in a semi-opaque fashion each time the user touches the screen.  Pretty sweet.

Shame on me

Occasionally it’s not what you learn from the latest news story, or read from the newest book that teaches you a valuable lesson. Sometimes it’s learning something you’ve already known again, with a hard kick in the ass for a reminder!

What did I learn this past Friday? Well after coming home quite happy to learn about my fiancé and I’s new apartment, I did something stupid. I turned the car off, grabbed my weekend clothes and quickly ran into the house to revel in our joy, leaving my car unlocked. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this, and at my parents house I do it almost all the time. The reason is because of how comfortable I am there and safe I feel. We can leave the cars, front door, even garage unlocked or wide open for a whole day and not worry about a thing. To be honest it’s quite amazing to think thats possible now that I look back on it, but we do and we do it because its easy and mostly because its comfortable.

The same cannot be said for my fiancé’s parents house, where I thought I had taught myself to always lock my doors, after having my radar detector stolen from it last fall. Well I slipped up, and similar to last time my unlocked car proved to be too easy a target to pass up, and thus my favorite thing I own at the moment, my MP3 player and all its accessories plus my cell charger and splitter plugs were stolen from me. As you can imagine I was quite enraged when I went to listen to the rest of my favorite Podcast, and found everything missing! I lamented for the rest of the day, even called the Police to file a report this time, in the vain hope that they could do something other than pass out speeding tickets. I was astonished at how hard it was to ask a cop to even attempt to inspect my car, for prints, hair, something they could use to find out who it was. Perhaps I watch too much CSI and Law an Order, given false hope that police actually know how to do their jobs by these mythical shows, but I digress…

In the end I re-bought everything(cheaper this time too, and some better!) and moved on with my life, kicking myself for getting fooled by this same thief again! Remember that old saying “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me,” well it does still count for something and should be a constant reminder for everyone to be vigilant.

Vigilance I say we must have Vigilance!

PS I’m going to get you dirty old bike rider man!

Is it just me or are we just a little too sensitive?

I was in Georgia this last weekend for the National Championships of collegiate competative speech. As I sat observing a highly entertaing round of humorous after dinner speeches, one particular speaker started on her topic: pig feces in our tap water. She reported that the EPA has actually recommended that farmers dispose of their pig’s fecal matter in local drainage and creeks — sending it straight into our local water supply. As it so happened, I also heard a particular speech that claimed milk has too many hormones in it and it is giving us all cancer.

This all got me to thinking: are we really that unsafe, are have we just become too paranoid?

Think about it: I could show you a glass of water (hog feces free) that looks and tastes perfectly fine. But, if you take that same water and hold it under a microscope you’ll see thousands of small organisms floating around. Gross? Not really… it’s just nature. It’s just life. While I won’t say that hormones on our milk, or hog feces in our water are natural occurances — I will question whether or not its really a big deal.

When they tell us that aspertain in sweetner is bad for us, the basis is on a large serving given daily to small rodents (hardly an accurate assesment of the average american’s intake). Movies like “Super Size Me” use this same tactic: 30 days of all fast food, all the time. I don’t think we needed a documentary to tell us that was unhealthy. But I also don’t think the normal american eats fast food to the point that the documentors experimented with. (Nor do I believe the average American is a vegan who suddenly switches over their diet to include only fast food) But even if some americans do live solely off of fast food, theyre probably apathetic about their health to begin with.

Studies have shown that children who are oversheltered from dirt and grit become super vulnerable to disease later in life because their immune systems have not been built up. Has it ever occurred to anyone that fecal matter in water might be a good thing? (I’m just throwing that one out there, but now onto my real point…)

I think we would like to think the crazy things we do to our food cause all the sickness in our world. (“Oh, Yellow 5 kills your sperm count!” ) News flash: erectile dysfnction isnt a real disease. It’s a marketing tool, a made up condition authored by sales people at the drug companies. (You might have heard of the real cause for E.D., its called GETTING OLD)

It rattles me up that we are so concerned when we find out a food we had the concious choice to eat makes us unhealthy. Perhaps big macs will kill you….if you have 3 a day…every day. But, maybe we have lost the bigger picture, and are just way too sensitive. Let me illustrate:

Uncle Sam: “Eww… you mean there is .1% fecal matter in my water?”

Ethiopian: “You have water?!”

I can drink distilled, bottled water with every meal, eat every meal completely trans fat free, avoid fast food, and work out daily till I sweat as much as Mark Foley in a room full of 7th grade boys, but what happens when I get run over by a caprice in the parking lot of the YMCA?  Case and point: Life is short. We should take care of ourselves, but we should also enjoy the lives we are trying so hard to protect against disease. If I get don’t get cancer from second hand smoke, the sun, my cell phone, milk, sweetener, water, or a whopper with cheese, I might just get cancer regardless.

Let’s enjoy life and not freak out because of a few turds in the ocean. Fight the real battle and feed the world.

Help Save Internet Radio!

The following is the text from an e-mail I received from the fine folks at Pandora radio:

I’m writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn’t pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends – the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I’m no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster’s business potential.

I hope you’ll take just a few minutes to sign our petition – it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

Please help out in the effort to save internet radio, sign the petition today!

Myspace 2.0?

What I’m actually talking about is a site called Virb. If facebook is an evolution of myspace, then Virb is what some folks are calling Myspace done right!  What it does right simply is the interface.  Taking a look at the front page you can already tell this place just looks better.  The main problem people have with myspace these days is that it is cluttered, the features are messy and there are ad’s everywhere!  Most people are already moving over to facebook because it looks great, makes building your profile easy, and lets you see what your friends are doing fun as well.  Facebook is a glorified profile and set of groups though, as many myspace fans will tell you.  They still like the fact that their pages look like real web pages. (even if they are real Bad web pages!)

Click on any of the featured Virb pages from the home page and what you’ll see is a very nice website, that almost looks professionally done in most cases!  The bling and dancing lights and all the other elements that make myspace look like crap are gone, the ad’s few as can be found are placed at the bottom, and  most importantly Virb lets you put as much or as little of a profile on as you want!  The center of Virb is that it allows you to make a page the way you want to, add what ever you want and customize it how you like.

Thats great, but I don’t know how to program or use CSS or any fancy web things.  Virb handles all of this for you if you want to change a color or a background Virb can set that for you, or let you edit the CSS yourself whichever you’re most comfortable with!

I’m not ready to jump into a new social site yet myself,  I hardly have time to look at facebook now,  but if I wanted to create a new page and I had some interesting stuff(pictures, movies, songs, ect..) to put up on it Virb would be the place!