Scott.Buffington.me

I attended a Rush concert at the Allentown Fair on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010. TicketMaster asked our ticket purchaser for a review. Here’s what he entered. All of us will be surprised if it is approved:

[1 of 5 stars given]

This review isn’t about the show; at least, what I saw of it. Rush always rocks and they’re my favorite band. However, this is the first Rush show in 20 years of seeing them where I didn’t have a view of Neil Peart. Unless you count the times they showed him on the video screen. When I purchased tickets to this show, I got third row in section A, which was the reserved-seating ground section furthest to the right. The seating chart didn’t show the stage, so I went ahead on faith that TicketMaster was indeed giving me the best seats available. They didn’t. We arrived at the venue and were amazed to find that our seats were nowhere near the stage. We were at least 30 yards away from stage left’s edge and were at such a bad angle we could just see Geddy and Alex. Neil’s drumkit and the video screen behind him were completely blocked from our view. From my point of view, the Allentown Fair and TicketMaster conspired to rip me off. Everyone around me felt the same way. It was shameful to charge us the highest ticket price for seats that were worse than the general admission grandstand. I won’t be coming back to this venue and I’m going to recommend against patronizing the Allentown Fair.

All three of us attending the show and all those around us were so disappointed when we were seated. We had attended a show just two years ago at Hershey and our third row seats were right in front of Geddy Lee. The seating we paid for Allentown Fair and the position of said seating would not have been appropriate for any show. But for Rush it was a particular crime and I hope Rush never plays there again. We could not even see Neil Peart, I saw a drum stick fly in the air occasionally. Anyone that has a clue who Rush is knows that Neil is a vital part of seeing Rush, and not being able to see the stage props was also disappointing. We could not see the time machine, nor the screen behind Neil, obviously since we could not see Neil. I was so upset I felt like complaining to the ushers, but realized there was no point. What was particularly disappointing is we paid the same price as those center stage and general admission had a better seat than we did. We were flat out ripped off. Here is a picture of our view.

I could say more, but I think I’ve made my point. Don’t patronize the Allentown Fair. They are ripoff artists just like TicketMaster. Rush, please don’t play there ever again.

Because sometimes he sings songs about me.

I made the last updates to the song count for the 2009 Tour today.

After listening to a recent This American Life podcast, the economy in the gutter and so many people losing their jobs or finding their pay cut it got me thinking. When you were a young adult you likely had a plan and perhaps a backup plan, Plan B. Of course not many of us had a plan beyond that because Plan A was absolutely going to work. Strangely enough, my original Plan A at first became my Plan B.

When asked in junior high through high school about what I wanted to do after high school I would often say I wanted to be a systems programmer, I had no idea what they really did, but I knew they worked with computers and not just in a clerical sense. I was less than a stellar student, I did enough to get by, doing little to prepare me for the career I said I wanted to pursue. In my defense, high school was unchallenging and boring to me. The math teachers were less than interesting and any sort of computer classes we were offered were so horrible that I remember the teacher missing my senior year more than they were in the classroom. Few if any of my high school teachers had any clue how to engage me. Do not get me wrong, a lot of this was my own fault; I take as much responsibility as a teenager deserves. Like most teenagers, I thought I knew everything and that Plan A or Plan B could never fail. It is worth mentioning that I seriously considered the military, but in the end I decided against it.

Strangely enough when I first graduated from high school I was presented with an opportunity by my brother-in-law to work for a vending and entertainment company (video games and pool tables). I thought that perhaps starting out by moving and relocating this equipment that I might pursue an electronics career (Plan B). My first career choice being a systems programmer (Plan A), in today’s non-mainframe lingo, a systems administrator. I of course was ill prepared for either career, being the last of six children I did not expect my parents to pay for college. Sure they would have supported me if I had chosen that route, but it was not on my radar. To make a long story short, in less than a year I realized Plan B was not going to pan out, at least not with my current employer.

No problem, an opportunity for an entry level position that would open the door for Plan A became available. Unlike high school, I was motivated to work and went about climbing the Information Technology ladder enroot to Plan A. I have been working specifically with Plan A now for over 10 years; I did some of the college thing along the way while working full time. I had achieved about the status of an associate degree and I am currently back to school working toward my Bachelors. Trust me, if I had to do it over again knowing what I know now I would have just did the college thing, because it is important, to me anyway. I probably could have had more fun along the way as well.

In the current economy no plan is safe and I am really curious how many out there are still on Plan A, Plan B or Plan C, D, E or F. Age 40 is creeping up on me and while I would not necessarily choose to change careers, I would be a fool to not recognize it could happen someday. Like others, a change might even be welcome and the right thing to do. I know a very broad range of folks read this blog and I would love to hear about careers or plans that have done well or you think will do well in what could be long down turn in the economy. Perhaps you just want to tell us about your own adventures, all feedback is welcome.

Updating my search for the best way to consume the news and standard media available to me, over the past week I reviewed all my RSS feed subscriptions (via Google Reader) and I eliminated the Del.icio.us feeds I was subscribed to, except for my network of friends. For Tech news I decided to just use Slashdot, I subscribed to the RSS feed for my old hometown newspaper, I review Google News at least once a day and of course I remained subscribed to all the feeds of the personal blogs I track. Many of you out there do a nice job of filling in the news crevices I might somehow miss. I also now receive a morning newspaper which I take to work and look through during down time. In a few minutes you can literally scan the daily paper way faster than any news website, of course those that have continued doing the newspaper thing likely know this. Instead of relying on the Internet solely I have cut down on the amount of Internet media I am consuming, limiting it to what I consider quality. I do listen to several podcasts, some of which also keep me updated on technology, I will likely publish a full listing of blog and podcast subscriptions in the near future. The changes I made have drastically helped with staying informed and at the same time made me less attached to my RSS reader.

This brings me to another item I am curious to hear feedback on. Some of you I know use MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. I am signed up to all these services, I never use MySpace and I would recommend Facebook over MySpace to someone looking to use a service like this. I think Facebook looks more professional and seems slightly more interesting. That being said, I am mostly on these services for networking purposes I rarely sign into any of them. I commonly hear the self-proclaimed A-list bloggers talk about these services and how great they are. All of these folks like myself have a personal web space and are easily found. So, what are they possibly using these services for if not just doing some sort of blogging at another site further boosting their egos. I have not at all heard of a good use for Twitter yet. the A-list bloggers often say they use the services for different things in their world. What a bunch of baloney, they never say what that purpose is "in their world" and if you read their Twitter it is just micro-blogging that their plane just landed, or a link. I am open minded, all I am asking for is a legit and honest answer to the question of what possible different use do these websites have over a personal website(blog)?

Unlike most of these folks, I have real deadlines. I work a real Information Technology job, one where I need to get things done, not just talk about how many people follow my Twitter feed. If your profession is to inform me about technology and good uses for such, then please enlighten me, do not act as if you live in some mysterious world where you need to blog on five different sites because one location is not enough. That my friends defeats the purpose of technology, it does not embrace the best method. I am all ears and if the answer is that they do not provide anything different, then say so and I can accept you enjoy having imaginary Internet friends. This post likely could have been two different posts, but in a sense it all involves the use of my time, media and consumption of said media.

When I first started listening to podcasts and of course producing them myself I knew the one thing that I really liked was the massive decrease in advertising compared to commercial radio. Of course advertising crept in and for the most part as far as the podcasts I listen to advertising is done in a much smarter way than it is done on commercial radio. The biggest improvement is that there is far less of it. Most would argue and rightly so that the producing and distributing of the radio program costs a whole lot more. While I agree, I think radio used to do it right and have stumbled so far away from the right way to advertise that they are doomed to never again know success like they once did. Radio has no one to blame but themselves, radio could still be king but things need to change.

Have you ever listened to old radio programs? If you have, no doubt you heard the ingenious and creative way they used to do product promotion. Occasionally, and I do mean very, very seldom I hear it done the old way and when it is, it is a treat and much better than the high volume advertising that is all over the airways. In America at least 20 minutes of each hour is filled with advertising on commercial radio and almost all of it is trash begging the listener to tune out. It is dispersed throughout the hour and makes it seem even worse. For those that have seen the movie A Christmas Story, remember the Ovaltine advertising. It was thrown in by the announcer or part of the show, never did they leave the program to where you had to reduce your volume or were so annoyed you changed the station, something I do now every time.

I listen to some radio in my car, not as much as I used to, and it is so obvious I am listening to a dying medium that has no one to blame but themselves. Over the years, I have had a few products allow the DJ or person whom I am listening to in the case of talk radio do the advertising. It is so much better, the volume does not rise and you have a sense that you are still listening to the show, something that is very important. I am positive most of you out there would agree, so what happened? I confess I listen to mainly NPR other than sports radio and NPR really only advertises itself. But I would listen to more commercial radio if the advertising was not so badly done.

So what prompted this post? A couple of the podcasts I listen to have some advertising, usually only one product in a half hour to one hour show. Very acceptable and in some cases done very, very well. A few examples of advertising done right, TWiT with Leo Laporte and whomever else joins him do the advertising on their own. They do not run a commercial, they talk about the advertiser at the end of their podcast. What is interesting is that the broadcasters, the guys that do the show every week made it interesting. They recommend products from the advertiser and talk about how great the service is and perhaps something they purchased from the advertiser. This is a hundred times better than if the advertiser had made their own commercial. In my opinion, this is the way all advertisers should do it. Even if a podcast adds another product and inserts it into the show creatively, I would still not be bothered and may even be interested in hearing more about what the advertiser has to offer.

Another podcast I listen to, Buzz Out Loud from CNET has one advertiser and the snippet is so short and well done that I forget I ever hear it. But I can tell you in all cases who the advertiser is. The advertisement is short and always at the same point and never do I feel like I am wasting my time and fast forward the podcast, and I could do so. Rarely ever is advertising done well on commercial radio and mostly I never remember who was advertising in the first place. Many times and mostly I change the station during advertising and I have no idea when to switch back because the advertising breaks are so long. Sometimes I never tune back and I find it hard to believe that other radio listeners do not do the same thing. If so, would that not tell someone that the current form of radio advertising is not working?

Because both advertisements in the two mentioned podcasts are done so well, I find it only fair that I provide a link to Audible.com and Earthlink and not necessarily that the advertisers do it well but that they allow the podcasters to do it well. Commercial radio ratings have to be at an all-time low and podcasting will make it tougher and tougher for them as more people discover the medium. Commercial radios death has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with their terrible advertising model. At least for this listener, the medium of radio could still king, especially for commuters or those at desk jobs, but instead I choose prerecorded podcasts or my iTunes library because no one wants to listen to badly done advertising for 33.34% of each hour. If radio were done creatively and right, I would still choose it more often than I do now. However, as more and more of the information I am interested in moves to podcasting, I will move more and more away from radio. I already listen to much less radio than ever before and do not even keep a radio actively set up in my home entertainment unit any longer.

The podcasting advertising model killed the radio star.

I did not realize it until I started receiving comments and emails on my Ubuntu 7.10 post, but I had some quotes out of place on my previous update post. As a result there was a lot of text that was not visible. See this post to read what I did with my Ubuntu troubled PC and the couple issues I had with Leopard. I must have been on the move the night I initially made that update post. Hopefully this and the comments on the original post will stave off any additional emails. I do appreciate all the feedback, but I am past the issue.

I need to find the perfect poster for the garage, something to kick start the decor of my garage. I am very close to having nearly zero clutter in the garage. Every guy needs to have a "guy poster" or something to claim the garage. Sure I have my "Guy Room", but the garage needs something too.

The guy room is more of an extra family room, but the garage, that is where things get fixed. Where tools hang lovingly from the peg board, where my implements of weed destruction and lawn and garden building reside. It is even at times a place where a guy might hangout and tinker around with various projects.

Just a week or so ago I was hanging out in my neighbor's garage. He has a variety of sports and car tin decorations and posters. I have considered one of the traditional beer posters with the babe as a good start, but I am kind of anti-Anheuser-Busch. I make better beer than they do, they just make a whole lot more. ;) Any suggestions from the gallery on what direction I should go with the garage decor?

If you find a penny nailed to the door frame of a building you live in - or run a business from - leave it. You have inherited someone's good luck!

...we live in a world where the idea of someone rewarding good behavior in this life, rather than the next (or at the door to the Pearly Gates) sounds darn nice, and particularly for children, is a good reminder of the rewards of thrift, virtue, compassion and honesty. And those are sorely missing attributes in our modern world, if you ask me.

Now that we are safely past April Fools day I thought I would throw a random post out here with some items I stumbled upon since my last post. Google's April Fools day gag was full of information on why Google never takes any of their software out of the beta stage. Dave Taylor fielded the question by referencing the Google gag.

Speaking of Google, I had thought Gmail was pulling my leg on April 1st when they announced they were increasing the space from one gigabyte to two gigabytes. I had noticed that throughout the day on April 1st that the space available was growing steadily. Meaning it did not jump immediately to 2 gigabytes, I saw at one point it was 1.4 gigabytes then 1.6 gigabytes and finally I have this now.

I have also been seeing about getting Mr. Chuck "Jaboobie" Hoyes his Brutal Deluxe Championship Trophy. I had a minor issue with the trophy which is being resolved, I actually did not notice the error immediately. Tom "Theismann's Legs" Steck pointed it out as we were prepping the trophy.

Over the weekend I stumbled upon some crazy patents. Makes me wonder what crazy stuff I should have tried putting a patent on.

Lastly, a little coffee related item, did you know where the phrase Cup of Joe comes from?

According to the June 2004 issue of Sea magazine (volume 96, no. 6, page 22): When Josephus Daniels became secretary of the Navy in 1913, he prohibited alcohol aboard all U.S. Navy vessels - making coffee the strongest drink that could be served on board. For that reason, sailors started referring to a mug of strong coffee as "a cup of Joe".

Who do I think will win the NCAA Football National Championship? Here's a little hint.

If USC wins the title this year, maybe some of my lifting mates will be a bit more jealous of my weight set. I give to you, a photo from my weightroom and my prediction on who will win the National Championship.

19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)
From: Scott E Fahlman

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways. Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use

:-(