We have 2-3 news papers in East Orlando that are constantly being left our front lawns and driveways. I try to read one of them every week, The East Orlando Sun, because it is our true local news paper for Avalon Park. And honestly, I love small publications. In fact, when I was growing up, the Wellington Town Crier was one of my favorite things to read. And even to this day, when I go to a new city/state I always pick up the local paper because it’s the easiest way to get a feel for what is going on and what to do while you’re there. (Except for Vegas — be careful what you pick up and read in Vegas… ;) ) But just because I love them, doesn’t mean they don’t piss me off. (Whats new…)

So, today while getting the mail. I noticed that some of my neighbors have 3-4 Copies of this (weekly) newspaper sitting on their front lawn / sidewalk. Not only is it an eye sore, but you would figure that the paper person would of stopped after 1 or 2. Even worse some of these homes are places where I see the residents every day — Which means they are walking right by the papers and not picking them up even if it is just to throw them away. Is this paper so bad that some of my neighbors are even afraid to touch it? Possibly… But I really think the residents are just lazy, snow birds, have already moved out of their overpriced house which has been on the market for a year and will never sell, or their interest only reverse adjustable rate balloon mortgage has matured and they can no longer afford the payment and have skipped town before the foreclosure man comes a knocking.

So, this brings up the question, Who is responsible for cleaning up the papers? I would figure that it would be the East Orlando Suns responsibility to pick them up because it’s pretty much branded litter? right? Well, possibly not. After searching for what “Litter” is — it doesn’t mean quite what I thought it did.

Wikipedia puts it best: “Litter is a waste type consisting of any tangible personal property which has been unlawfully scattered and or abandoned in a public place (usually outdoors). Tangible property abandoned in a private space is not considered litter.”

So since they are leaving an unsolicited tangible item on PRIVATE property — What is the Crime (if any)? Solicitation? Dumping? And is it their responsibility to go out after the fact and clean up papers that have not been picked up? Or, once the paper is on private property does it become the sole responsibility of the property owner to clean up?

I pay for the Orlando Sentinel to be delivered. So, that is clearly my responsibility. But, I have never asked or paid for this paper to be delivered — So who’s responsibility is it? I’m just sick of picking up 20 papers each week so my street doesn’t look like a landfill. Any ideas for a resolution? Or insight into laws that govern this activity?

Personally, in the last week I have been a fly on a wall for 3-4 conversations about which format, HD-DVD or Blu-ray, will win the new media format war. Honestly, I don’t care who wins, because this is one thing I refuse to be an early adopter for. But if I had to chose today, HD-DVD will clearly win. Why?

Why HD-DVD will win the format war:

1. Of all the HD TV’s I have seen in use in people’s homes in the last year (ie. Not Showroom Models), exactly 2 have been properly set up and well calibrated. I think the jump from SD to HD is so great, most people think tuning HD is unnecessary. (Or don’t know how) So despite which format is “Higher Quality” in tech specs will be a moot point to the majority of consumers.
2. Someone this week said — “With Blu-Ray you can fit every Friends episode on 1 disc.” — Well, as neat as that may be … to some … Major Video manufactures/outlets don’t want that. Netflix and Blockbuster currently get 10 rents out of people who want to watch every Friends Episode. NBC got 10 individual DVD sales, one for each season. And personally, I don’t want to dish out 200$ for a single disc when I can get 10, for 10 easy payments of 20$ as I see fit. So I’m pretty sure media size will not be the defining factor.
3. Hybrid HD-DVD’s. These will play in new HD-DVD players and the Billion other DVD players already sold world wide. This means only a single media type needs to be sold/rented at retail outlets. Granted, There are talks about Hybrid DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray disks / players. But that is more layers, more licensing, and more cost for the consumer.
4. HD-DVD will be the first to the two major consumer milestones. “Possibly” < 200$ Stand alone player before Christmas. (XBox Add on only 175$)
5. Porn Industry has chosen HD-DVD, because Sony won’t license Blu-Ray for XXX films.
6. Betamax and Minidisc. Nuff Said.

Ultimately, which ever media is the cheapest to market first will win. I don’t think the benefits of Blu-Ray are enough to out HD-DVD. And sadly, whichever of the formats manage to make it easy and cheap to “backup” (aka. pirate) first — That’ll put the icing on the cake.

Alex’s saga with Spirit Airlines continues. This is great. Now, the CEO of Spirit Airlines Ben Baldanza hits “Reply All” and copies his arrogant response to the original sender of a complaint.

Poor, Poor, Benny. I’m not a customer either, but to help your number crunchers with the next sales projection, Future Customers - 1.

Don’t worry though Ben. The way the Internet works these days, is no one takes any of this seriously until someone makes an lolcat about the situation…

Oh crap.

I have never had so many awesome responses to such a simple question..

Background of the question:
For the last week or so, ESPN has been playing a segment about week-by-week speculated ranking for college football. The set that they are using for the segment is surrounded by helmets of the teams that are traditionally top 20-25 teams. UF, Texas, Notre Dame, USC, etc. etc. However, front and center when the cameras focus in on the analysts is a UCF helmet. Granted I am a UCF fan, but seriously “One of the teams, is not like the other…”

With the exception of the fact that the helmet is the Old UCF Logo, I have a feeling one of the following is the reason for this.

- There is a UCF Alumni on the set design team for ESPN. wo0p! Drop us a comment!!

- They Mixed UCF up with USF.

- They know something about our season that … no one … absolutely no one … anywhere else on the planet knows…

- They ran out of Helmets, and a old logo UCF helmet was the cheapest one they could find on ebay.

So, back to the best question ever…. “Do you watch Sportscenter?” — My personal favorite Answers Below:

1. Ummmm, people don’t?
2. You mean like, more than once a day?
3. Yea, I’m a guy.
4. No, not every day. But that is only because I skip the day before and after the All star break..
5. No*, Never*, Why?*

God bless the American male.

UPDATE!:


Click for video.

Since I’m in a good mood today, I have decided to talk about one of my favorite topics… Stuff I hate! I’m not sure why I enjoy hating stuff so much… But, for some reason, it just gives me a nice warm fuzzy inside.

Top 5 things I hate This week

1. Macs. OSX is not worth the price it costs for the hardware that runs it.
2. Florida Summers when it doesn’t rain in the afternoon.
3. Bright House Cable / Internet. I need more HD channels, and I need Internet that stays up for more than 10 mins.
4. People who don’t appreciate the hate!
5. People who leave time on a microwave.

Damn! Now I feel better. Some people call me negative… But is that wrong it hating stuff makes me happy?

Styledash (One of my personal favorite blogs…) posted this today about what telecommuters like to wear to work…

Last Friday after reading a post about Making Bacon, I had decided that it was time for me to finally break down and buy a smoker. I have been thinking about buying one for a while now, but after realizing I could make more and more of my favorite foods in my own backyard that really sealed the deal.

Ironically, it was just at the right time. This weekend, I spent an awesome day with Frog, Crispy, Stone, and Lord KP (Yes, He IS a landowner in Scotland) about 20 miles offshore of Port Canaveral. We landed quite a few nice kings, snapper, some random reef fish, and a bonito that had some massive shoulders on him. All in all, I ended up coming home with about 8lbs of fresh kingfish.

I’m not the biggest fan of kingfish. Fresh king, with lots of seasoning is actually a decent meal, but after that it can go south fast. In fact, while searching for recipes I found one the Florida Sportmans Forums that went something like “Steak, rinse in a salty brine, coat in olive oil and throw in the trash.” — Which is a lil upsetting, but shows that there is a liking disconnect between Kings and other Florida fresh fish.

So, I decided to smoke it all, and turn it into fishdip. I’ll post my recipes and results in the future. But so far, all I can say is … wow … I love my new smoker … And as an added bonus, I think every neighbor within 300yards came outside to see where the wonderful Hickory Smell was coming from. Awesome. (People being Neighborly is a Lost art in Avalon)

I’m thinking that this Sunday I might do ribs because I’m having issues finding pork bellies in Orlando (for Bacon) — We’ll see…

In the meantime, I present you with the newest member of our family…. Ol’ Smokey…

I have been looking for a good reason to buy a smoker for a long, long, time.

Making Bacon

After reading that, I am embarrassed that I don’t have one. I know what I’m doing on Sunday!

OH! And Make sure everyone calls me Sunday afternoon… “Hey Man, what are you up to?” …. “Make’n Bacon…” That would never get old… It’s almost worth getting a smoker just for the jokes…

Wow, I must admit I’m impressed. In a time when I thought all hope was lost for most American auto manufactures, JD power and associates released the 2007 Vehicle Dependability Study.

The US manufactures that landed above average were: Buick (Which tied for first), Cadillac, Mercury, Lincoln.. and Oldsmobile? (WTF?) Granted, these tend to be a bit more of the US Luxury lines, it’s still good to see that there is potential for the rest.

The one manufacture that I would also like to point out is, Volkswagen. Finishing fifth to last, only beating out Sabb, Izuzu, Suzuki, and Land Rover. Why people keep buying Volkswagen’s is beyond me. (I’m in trouble for that one, Jaime loves her Diesel Passat). *shrug*

Blackberry Pearl + A lil Photoshop Animation = 1994 Internet Quality Animated Image… Who Freaking needs Youtube… ;)

Mad props to Gavin and Billy for finding this spot. And Mad Props to the KP for getting me to go…