Jaime’s Pumpkins

Michael’s Pumpkins

Every year Jaime and I have a pumpkin carving contest… I clearly won this year… How can you go wrong with Spongebob?

I guess there is quite a bit more happening in my neighborhood @ 4:30am than I originally thought… Apparently there was a worm orgy out in front of my house… [Please Note: There has been no rain for a week, and my sprinklers are off… So these aren’t floaters…]

And for those of you who like a lil worm-on-worm action

I had to wake up this morning at 4:30am to take care of some business. (And because we loved it so much, We’re going to do it again tomorrow!) I actually thought it quite interesting how a-buzz my neighborhood was at this time. People jogging, walking dogs, driving off to work…

Regardless of the people, it was interesting how peaceful everything seemed to be. Seriously, for the first time in god knows how long, there wasn’t a single leaf blower or weed wacker running. The steam coming off all of our faux ponds gave the neighborhood an eerie glow from our over priced “paid for in full by the HOA” street lights. And if you listened closely you could hear the deer off in the distance — “.. I swear Marge, This wasn’t here last year — I distinctly remember there being a big oak tree in this very spot… “.

God Bless Suburban Sprawl!

Ladies and Gentleman, I introduce you to ‘HaulinCelly’ — Time to go pull something out of the ground…

I have been looking for the answer to the following questions for a while now: When is it time to switch to a new cell phone provider? and Which one to choose?

Everyone I have asked so far can only give me one of two answers: “Because So-And-So Sucks…” or, “Because So-And-So gave me a better deal…”

Well, I guess those answers are fine, but what bothers me about the `Big-4` [Cingular, Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, T-Mobile] cell providers is that they lock you into these crazy contracts. So if it is true that So-And-So Sucks, or a better deal comes along… You’re pretty much stuck, or face the penalty of crazy fines.

So I guess what my problem is, if one of these providers felt that their service/network was so superior — Then why don’t they offer real Month-To-Month contracts, or at least 30-Day `Demo` Simcards [GSM need only Apply] so people can try out their networks on their own phone, in their own daily environment… Sure some have 30-Day money back guarantees, but you still need to go through the whole signup process… etc. etc. Pain in the ass..

This whole process is just lame… I guess I realize why I have been with “Cingular” for 10 years now (Cellular One -> Att Wireless -> Cingular) It’s because of their business model :: “Just as long as our competition is just as incompetent and incapable as we are, people will have no reason/easy way to leave…”

I think I’ll call this `Corporate Unified Monopolies Screwing Unrestricted Commerce` — Or we can refer to these companies as CUMSUC’ers for short…. Huh… Might need to work on that acronym…

I really hate useless TV scrollers. I’m not quite sure why Networks feel that they need to constantly feed people abridged versions of the news. My best guess is some focus group apparently liked them, so now they are on every channel imaginable. The problem with the idea, is that the scrollers are not configurable — So Networks have to give the user ALL the news, and not what they want to see. How is this a problem? You’ll loose the users interest :: Even with topic specific sites like ESPN, sometimes I don’t want to sit through Tennis scores, and would rather get more info on the Steelers, So I change the channel and possibly come back later and hope for better luck. (Or, goto my computer for instant gratification)

My Solution? Tivo.

I want to see Tivo allow users to add in scrolling news to their screens. Configurable from the UI, Tivo can easily add in support for scrollers from simple RSS feeds, to feeds sponsored by CNN, ESPN, TWC, etc. What would make this profitable for Tivo? Tivo sells “Breaking News” links on the scrollers. If there is a tornado warning in my Zip code, TWC sends me a link that immediately lets me change to their channel. If there is major breaking news, CNN sends me a link that lets me immediately change to their news coverage. [Ie. every man loves car chases. I tag ‘car chases’ and tivo send me an alert when there is live coverage] — Awesome? Right?

Best of all, I can configure my news, and get the content that I want, when I want it. That is why people buy Tivo, because they want to control what they see on their TV. Now they can control the what, when, and where they get this data. I can now get my sports scores during Nip Tuck, I can get the local weather while watching Skinemax, err, Sopranos, and I can get the RSS feed for the Emurse.com Blog while watching Veronica Mars. Awesome. And Suddenly, what happens, Tivo has shifted the power of the DVR back to it’s users.

Overall, Tivo has tried to become a content delivery company way too many times, and in my opinion, failed miserably. Here is your chance to give users more control over their TV, and better yet, make some money at the same time. — Not to mention, allow me (and others) to cover up those damn network scrollers with news I actually care about. When I care about it.

Oh, and if you use my Idea, just send me a Series 3 Tivo, and we’ll call it even… ;)