In Springtime A Man’s Mind Turns To…

Burt Likko 23 Comments

The grill’s been getting a fair amount of work. Did turkey burgers. Did ground beef burgers. Did a fish burger with that last piece of tilapia. Turns out, that spreadable cheese works as a nice substitute for tartared mayonnaise on a fish burger. The grill’s working a lot these days.

Avocado now feels like the essential vegetable on burgers for me. Lettuce, tomato, onion… These things are not important; if they aren’t on the burger, no problem. But I’m wanting that avocado a lot now. Below the jump, I continue riffing on burgers. You may not believe me as you read, but I am in fact not stoned right now. Continue Reading →

Troubleshooting The Play Gym

Will Truman 9 Comments

So one of the things Clancy had the bright idea to buy is a “play gym”, which is basically a mat with a couple arcs with dangley thingies that the baby can grab, bat around, and so on. It’s proven to be a great buy. She loves it. When she goes too long without it, she starts getting restless (we call it “understimulation”).

Anyway, the batteries on it died. The batteries are for the music, which is basically something like 8-bit video game music. In fact, Clancy calls it “Mario Bros music” even though it’s not actually Mario Bros music. It’s really repetitive and honestly, we’ve gotten a bit tired of it anyway. It gets stuck in your head. But music is needed.

So I went on the trusted Internet, got a decommissioned smartphone with a solid speaker, and there my solution came:

Late Breakfast

Will Truman 54 Comments

McDonaldsMcDonald’s is looking at making some changes, including the possibility of all-day breakfast:

When asked whether there was potential for McDonald’s to serve breakfast all day, Thompson replied: “Yes, we would consider it. We have the focus on our existing menu, but we have looked at breakfast across the day. We have it in some markets around the world.”

He added that the McDonald’s has looked at some “innovative ways” to expand breakfast hours for customers. “I think we’ll be seeing some of those things in the near future,” Thompson.

The company is also experimenting with delivery services in in some countries “in a big way,” as well as in densely populated areas in the U.S. Thompson said that “delivery is a big, big opportunity, particularly in areas where you don’t have drive-throughs.”

I saw this via OTB, which misleadingly suggested that all-day breakfast is going to happen. I didn’t get that impression, myself.

McDonald’s definitely loses business by ending breakfast at 10:30. A lot of people, including myself, aren’t really ready to go out until that 10:30-11 range. So when I am in the mood for a breakfast sandwich of a non-homemade breakfast burrito, I end up elsewhere. Taco John’s and Safeway are the late options here. Elsewhere, it’s Sonic. Or Jack-in-the-Box. JitB actually serves breakfast non-stop. Their offerings aren’t quite as good as McDonald’s, and they’re unhealthier, but the all-day thing is huge. There are no Jacks near where I am. At all. Not in Callie, not in Redstone, not even in Summit.

If Jack can do it, I don’t know why McD can’t.

While I’m on the subject, a couple of McDonald’s stories:

As it happens, I went there for breakfast just last week. You know how sometimes you can just tell that your order is about to be messed up? You don’t have anything solid with which you can confront them about it, but you just know. My tip-off came when the guy asked me to confirm that I wanted egg on my Sausage McMuffin With Egg. It’s right there in the title. Why would he ask that? Then I saw in the order screen “Add Egg.” So I knew that something was wrong. It turned out that he had missed the “Sausage” part. So I got a McMuffin with just egg on it.

Back when Clancy was interviewing for the job in Queenland, I saw something that I had thought had gone the way of [something really tasty that doesn’t exist anymore]. The McBagel. I was huge into McBagel’s when I was younger and never quite forgave the McGriddle for pushing it off the breakfast menu. Did they bring the McBagel back, I wondered, or is it a regional thing? I didn’t know (I think the latter), but I had to get one. Unfortunately, it didn’t end up happening.

It would have happened if they were open until 11.

The End of Realignment

Will Truman 6 Comments

missouritigersThe ACC has announced a Grant of Rights deal for conference-members to 2027. What this technically means is that any team that leaves the ACC between now and then does not retain the TV rights to their home games. What this really means is that no ACC team will receive an invitation and that conference realignment has officially begun to end. Where high exit fees failed, the GOR has thus far succeeded.

What is sad about all of this is that had this been deployed sooner, a whole lot of the mess of the last couple of years could have been avoided. There was no way the Big East was going to sign one, but the Big 12 and ACC both did – only after losing key members. One of the tragic things about this whole mess is that 90% of it was reactive. Everybody was afraid of what everybody else was doing, and acted accordingly. With the exception of the Big East (which itself was largely a reaction to what happened in 2003), very few of the maneuvers (Texas A&M to the SEC being the only one that comes to mind, maybe Maryland) were actually strongly desired by both the teams that left and the conference that invited them. The instability became a beast all its own. The Pac-12 ended up with two members it really could have done without. Missouri wanted the academics of the Big Ten but ended up in the SEC (academically the weakest of the Power Five) because it offered stability in the face of a pissing contest between Oklahoma and Texas. The ACC ended up accepting an institution with far less prestige than the conference usually demands (Louisville). The Big 12 ceased being a geographical conference. Four conferences have (or will have) fourteen members, a number that really doesn’t make sense for anybody.

The biggest losers in all of this are, of course, the conference formerly known as the Big East, and the WAC. Although most members of both conferences found better homes. So we are really talking about five programs. Then there’s the Mountain West Conference, which actually came out okay but teams that left the WAC fifteen years ago suddenly find themselves in a conference with the teams that they left.

After that, it would have to be the Big 12. They will be the only major conference not to have its own network. Worse yet, I’m not sure if they could have a network because one of their marquee products is doing its own thing. The remaining Texas schools are two private universities and one way off in West Texas. Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, and West Virginia aren’t going to set the world on fire in terms of markets. There is a really good chance that when the dust clears, the Big 12, which is arguably more competitive than ever, will have a substantial income gap in comparison with the other conferences. (Except UTexas, of course.) They had an opportunity to make serious end-roads into the midwest (Louisville, Cincinnati, Pitt) and passed on it, leaving only one far-flung member in a region that doesn’t particularly care about the conference. Even better, there was a window in which they could have decimated the ACC with the first truly mega-conference with 18 teams (at which point, Texas having its own network wouldn’t have mattered nearly as much). But they didn’t. No consensus. All they have is the GOR, which could save the conference for a time, but nonetheless leave it in poor shape.

The ACC has survived, and a few weeks ago that looked like a real uncertainty. There were rumors abound of the Big Ten and SEC each taking two more, at which point the Big 12 may have finally acted. But they’re still around. Nonetheless, they are somewhat stuck with Louisville when West Virginia would have been a better fit by far. They passed on WVU largely for academic reasons, but ended up with one of WVU’s peers anyway. And Louisville was selected over UConn again out of a defensive posture – they knew they could take UConn any time, but Louisville had been on the Big 12’s radar. Signing the GOR sooner might have meant that they wouldn’t have had to replace Maryland, but even if Maryland had left they could have chosen a better (by their standards) match. (Errr, hey Mike, others, I mean no disrespect – Louisville is a fine school, it’s just that the ACC has/had this fixation…)

The biggest winner is the Big Ten, who has proven despite utter mediocrity on the football field, they have their pick of any school they want east of the Mississippi (and some west). And the Mid-American Conference, whose primary strength is that it’s full of programs that nobody else wants.

Linky Friday #22

Will Truman 58 Comments

MARK HAMILL, LUKE SKYWALKER, YODA, STAR WARSHealth:

[H1] Infant mortality rates in the US are falling!

[H2] Limiting soda size may backfire.

China:

[C1] These pictures of Hong Kong borg cubes are… beautiful. It’s funny that for a guy who lives in the country and was raised in the suburbs, I consider vertical density to be pretty conceptually awesome. Then again, it’s perhaps because I’ve never had to live in them that I can feel this way.

[C2] The interesting story of Kowloon Walled City, China. That just kind of blows my mind.

[C3] Documentary filmmakers on China’s ghost cities.

[C4] The interesting story of a man in China worried that his water supply might get cut off due to frigid temperatures, and how he accidentally created an ice waterfall.

Reading:

[R1] Personally, I don’t think there’s enough collusion in newspaper paywalls. This is really only going to work itself out if they can work something out between themselves. A majority of the biggest newspapers now have paywalls.

[R2] Superman has turned 75. Superman’s age will start mattering to me when there is at least a remote chance that he will get turned over to the public domain. Anyway, Superman is in his seventies, but the seventies were really awkward for Superman.

[R3] Ugh. I have too many audiobooks as it is. Here are 500 more, for free!

Lawbreaking:

[L1] If you want a bomb-sniffing dog to work faster, feed it fatty foods.

[L2] An interesting story of a man trying to rob banks who thinks he’s working for the CIA.

[L3] In Mississippi, a detective interrogating a suspect ended up shot dead by said suspect. In the interrogation room.

[L4] In Texas, a former Justice of the Peace (with his wife) was arrested for murdering a sheriff and a district attorney.

Business:

[B1] Samsung is trying to woo IT managers into buying their products. Isn’t that last decade’s strategy?

[B2] Hugh Langley says that despite the lackluster sales, the Chromebook is the future. I still don’t see it.

[B3] Workplaces are not keeping up with norms with regard to tattoos. I can’t say I’m sorry about this.

[B4] LDS missionaries are now allowed to email friends (and others).

World:

[W1] Somoa Air is charging travelers by weight.

[W2] Everybody loves Sweden (mostly because they see what they want to see).

[W3] From Pinky, an interactive map of Mormons in America. I wish it had more tiers, but it’s pretty cool.

[W4] Mark Zuckerberg supports immigration reform that would benefit Mark Zuckerberg. Not disagreeing, necessarily. Just sayin’.

Education:

[E1] There are some efforts underway to standardize online college standards.

[E2] There’s a proposal in West Virginia to make science fiction books part of the curriculum.

[E3] Robert Pondiscio makes the case for setting really low national education standards.

[E4] Do we want teachers and professors to know if you’ve been doing your ereading?

Crossed Cignals

Will Truman 17 Comments

Some Amazon sellers are upset that the retailer is increasing its fees:

Amazon’s online bazaar generates margins many times higher than traditional retail as the company takes a cut of every sale on its site made by a merchant, known as a third-party seller, and charges extra fees for handling logistics.

The growth of this business, which now accounts for almost 40 percent of unit sales, has helped push Amazon shares to record highs.

But a series of fee hikes over the past year and a half have alienated many merchants, and some are threatening to defect.

“If they increase fees too much, some sellers will decide to not sell there anymore,” said Niraj Shah, chief executive of furniture retailer Wayfair, which uses Amazon, eBay and Wal-Mart’s online marketplaces, as well as its own websites.

This post isn’t actually about that, however. This is about another complaint, which I can’t actually find the article the article for. Basically, retailers feel that Amazon is making promises on their behalf that they are having a hard time keeping up with regarding shipping dates. If anyone can provide a link, I’d be grateful.

cignal-whiteIt reminds me a bit of an opposite problem I once had to deal with, in a way. I used to take calls for CignalTV, a major satellite TV company. It was an unhappy job, especially for someone like me who doesn’t like talking to people on the phone. Anyway, CignalTV was having sort of the same problem as the Amazon vendors: promises being made on its behalf.

The selling of satellite service is a surprisingly shady business. Most of the time, you’re dealing with some independent company that is actually not the company you are signing up with. Rather, these “independent retailers” sign you up, get a cut for doing so, and then usually (though not always) make some money from Cignal by hooking up your dish. Well, some of these companies are less honorable than others. Sometimes, they’re little more than fly-by-night con men. Sometimes, they make you promises that Cignal will give you, for instance, a free DVD Player for signing up. Then they’ll dodge you for a while and then close shop and move on.

Cignal is then left to deal with irate customers who were promised something that Cignal never intended to give them. Cignal had a rash of these right about the time I started working for them (or working for a contracting company who worked for them). I took calls from people who wanted to know what the heck happened to their DVD Player they were supposed to be getting.

Somewhat surprising, Cignal made the decision to honor the agreement that they never made. Somebody, somewhere I guess did an analysis that it was easier to just give someone a DVD Player than it was to take the PR hit of having broken a promise as they try to explain the independent retailer situation they rely on. Badmouthing the independent retailers would mean badmouthing your salespeople, which itself is a problem.

I say that I am surprised, not because I don’t expect generosity (though I don’t) but because I don’t expect such smart business sense. I have actually come to expect companies to dig in their heels on such things even when it makes more sense to do otherwise.

Back to Amazon, I have actually come to disregard their promised delivery dates altogether. By virtue of living out of the way like I do, their “two day delivery” is going to be three if it’s sent from anywhere but California, Las Vegas, or Washington. A lot of them are, but a lot aren’t. The most important thing to me is that it gets here in under a week so that if I order it on Monday, it’s here by Friday.

Arapaho Heat & Power

Will Truman 9 Comments

It was a bit rough going there with the baby. Oddly enough, everything changed very quickly when we moved from the old place to the new place. The more we think about it, the more it looks like a significant culprit was… heat. Or lack thereof. We’re not sure, but we think that Lain was cold. Because upon moving over here, I set up what we’ve come to call The Next. I took a doorless closet, put her in there (primarily because it was the only dark place) with a space heater and an electric pad. The result is a very warm area. She was suddenly sleeping up to two hours a stretch. And suddenly a lot happier when awake. Somehow, we ended up with a smiley baby.

We got our first full-on electric bill from the first place. It’s less than half of what it was for the old place. This is rather shocking to me. I was expecting it to be rather comparable. We don’t have central heating here, but we have heaters in each room and the heater in the Nest is on an awful lot. It’s good to be green, I suppose. It’s quite nice when the power is low.

The dog has been a bit out of sorts since the move. Not sure why, but I’ve started to wonder if she’s just been cold. She has, inexplicably, taken to laying on the rug in the bathroom. It’s the thickest rug in a house with mostly wood flooring. That, combined with the fact that she has been even more clingy ever since I gave her a massive haircut, suggests cold. On the other hand, sometimes she lays down on the wood floor, which is really cold. So maybe she’s feeling ignored.