Category: Uncategorized

The Civee, Hope and I have pretty much settled into the new house.  The basement and attic still need to be sorted out, and some pictures need to be hung on the wall, but overall, we’re comfortable in the new place.

When telling people about our house, I get a lot of questions about where it’s located.  Technically, we’re in an area called Old North Columbus. But nobody knows where that is.  It would be much more easier to say the more popular Clintonville, but we’re a block south of Clintonville’s official border.  Now, I have a better answer.  We’re in Awesome Town.  At least that’s what the Columbusite calls it.  And if it’s on the Web, it’s good enough for me.

The Civee and I are in the middle of moving to the new house.  But fear not, the Internet has been installed and the computer is hooked up and working.

Unlike at the old place, we’re hooked straight in- no need for a wireless connection.  Also, unlike the old place, we chose not to get cable anymore.  It’ll be an adjustment, but I’m sure we’ll have other ways to amuse ourselves.

By the way, if you need a washing machine, let me know, I may be able to help.

With a little more than a month to go before the baby, The Civee and I decided we didn’t want life getting too boring.

So we bought a house.

It’s something we’ve wanted to do for a while.  We had been looking (not too seriously) for the past year and a half or so, but around January decided if we were going to make a move, it would be better to do so before the arrival.

For the past month, we’ve been embroiled in bidding and negotiating over the house,  and praying for the snow on the roof to melt so the inspector could make sure there weren’t any gigantic holes or leaks.  And it all came down to yesterday- the closing date.  I’ve heard the horror stories from others- the feeling that you’ll be paying forever for a house, having to sign your name hundreds of times and the general nervousness about the whole situation.

But it wasn’t that bad.  Sure, my hand still hurts from signing my name so many times.  And I don’t even remember half of the things I signed.  The worst part was trying to keep up with all the different conversations that were going on between the other people in the room as we were trying to sign the papers.  But I had The Civee with me.  And at the end, we got a set of keys to a house that we can call our home.

For the past ten years, I’ve lived in apartments where the walls had to stay white.  Before that, for most of my life, I’ve lived in homes attached to other structures.  Well, our house is free-standing.  And we can paint the walls whatever color we want.  It’s an older house, and I can’t stand in the basement, but I don’t care about any of that.

So for the next few weeks, we’re going to be painting and moving.  I should have time to write about 24 and Lost and whatever other nonsense I usually write about.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to get everything done before the arrival of  ….   I can’t say her name yet.  But you’ll find out soon enough.

So this weekend, The Civee was watching the Cincinnati Bengals take on the New York/New Jersey Jets in a playoff football game.  Feeling the need to fill my football-watching quota of a few minutes for this year, I sat down to watch with her.

During the action, I had an idea which could revolutionize the game of American football forever: the decoy ball.

You know how on boats they have those emergency rafts that can inflate in 2 seconds? Why not equip the offense with a similar device.  Un-inflated, it could be about the size of a quarter.  When activated, it would automatically inflate and resemble a football (but in reality have the weight and feel of a beach ball).

The offense calls the play, everyone (or just one or two players) activates their decoys, and BOOM, the defense doesnt know who to cover, and the guy with the real ball goes in for a touchdown.

Way I see it, it’s the football equivalent of the hidden ball trick (or at least the rosin bag trick used by Henry Rowengartner in Rookie of the Year).  Adds some creativity and confusion to a game that I find difficult to watch.

I’ll spare you The Civee’s response.  But just know that I’m ready to make American football watchable for the first time since the players stopped wearing leather helmets.

For the past week, the weather has been typical winter weather here in central Ohio: dreary, cold and snow/rain/freezing snow.

I wanted to see what it was going to be like this weekend, so I visited the National Weather Service’s forecast site (which I use instead of other sites for two reasons- they don’t have ads on their site and most other weather sites get their weather information from the NWS).  When I saw tonight’s forecast, I was confused, scared and bewildered:

The forecast for this afternoon and New Year’s Day are pretty straightforward.  Simple explanations and easy-to-understand graphics.  But what about tonight? Are frozen stalactites going to be raining down upon partiers in Central Ohio?  What is this FzgDz? Did they run out of vowels, or are they giving forecasts in leetspeek?

After Googling the phrase “FgzDz,” I found out it stands for “Freezing Drizzle.”  In fact, most of the sites that come up are weather related.  So fear not, Central Ohio, there’s no massive vowel shortage and you won’t be impaled by icicles tonight.  Just some freezing drizzle.  Makes me glad The Civee and I are hanging around here tonight.  Happy New Year, everyone.

Word-of-mouth is one of the most important promotional tools that any product can have.

Generate a good buzz, and people will buy.  But if people don’t like what you’re selling, it’s very likely they’ll tell others to stay away.

Nowadays, people don’t just talk to their friends about things they may be looking to buy.  They also go online.  I’ve let reviews on Amazon or random blogs influence my buying decisions, and I’m sure that’ll continue in the future.

A few years ago, I actually got an offer to review a product that I mentioned on the Kingdom.  The PR rep for the item offered to send me a free sample to do a complete review.  While I was flattered, I turned him down (more out of the fact that I don’t cook turkey than any other reason).  I’m sure others who run more reputable and/or popular blogs get similar offers every day and are often rolling in free products.

In many cases, it’s assumed that someone reviewing a product for a media outlet has received a free sample.  In some other cases, reviewers mention they’ve received freebies from the manufacturer.

But now, bloggers are being told that they have to disclose any freebies or else.

Monday, the Federal Trade Commission announced new rules about disclosing items mentioned in blog reviews:

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.

True, it’s a good practice to mention any links between a reviewer and a product, but not every case is that simple.  Or, as Wired puts it more simply:

If a well-known dog blogger reviews dog food they bought, no disclosure is necessary. If they review free dog food acquired through a coupon spit out by the supermarket’s computer, no disclosure is necessary. But if the dog food company sends the blogger a free sample based on their review, both the company and the blogger are on the hook if any subsequent review doesn’t include that info.

It’s an interesting idea, but as Wired mentions, it raises a lot of questions.

Here’s mine:  how’s the FTC going to enforce this?  I’m guessing this is aimed at U.S.-only blogs.  Okay, suppose I get a free copy of the next Weezer album (BTW-Geffen/Universal Music- I am planning on reviewing Raditude and it would be real helpful if you could send me an advance copy, okay?) and I give it a glowing review, but don’t disclose that they’ve given me a copy…What are they going to do? Fine my ISP? Reply to a post with a stern comment telling me to knock it off?  Send over a couple of government agents to unplug my connection?

Disclosing freebies is probably something that bloggers should do.  But I’m sure the FTC has better things to do than to make sure bloggers are doing so.

And Geffen, I’m serious about that review.