Archive for January, 2007
Apple iPhone - What’s the big deal??
I just don’t get it. I don’t understand what the big deal is with Apple’s new phone.
It’s a phone that doubles as an iPod, can send text messages and emails, takes pictures and videos, and can connect to the internet. Great. Again, what’s the point??
I know very few people that use their phone for all that stuff. The small screen makes internet surfing difficult, since most sites aren’t designed to be viewed on mobile phone screens (and seriously, how often are not near a computer with an internet connection?). Sending emails is not practical, as most keypads are phone style keypads and not keyboards. Most camera phones take crappy pictures and video. And these days, everyone and their mother already have an iPod.
So why would anyone in their right mind want to pay between $500 and $600 (plus a service contract) for an Apple branded phone that will do the exact same thing??
College football season comes to an end
Sadly, last night marked the final game of the 2006 college football season. And it was a bittersweet game. Bitter, because Ohio State’s loss cost me my only shot at winning the bowl week and overall championship in my office pool. Sweet, because once again the SEC displayed it dominance over the rest of the college football world.
The Florida win also saved us from months of “Florida never should have been there in the first place” articles from sportswriters. I wonder how many of the writers that wrote articles saying “Michigan should have made it in rather than Florida”, will now write articles about how great Florida is?? I’m guess they all will, since most sportswriters are a study in contradiction.
I guess now I’ll have to settle for NFL playoff football and the draft until the next college season rolls around. I’ve been told Alabama has a good basketball team this year. Maybe I’ll check them out.
The other night, I ripped a page right out of the MickMel play book: I had bad service at a restaurant and emailed them about my experience when I got home. Here’s what happened:
My wife and I went to Stoney River Legendary Steaks a couple of weeks ago. We had never been so we thought we’d give it a shot. Upon our arrival, we were told that the wait would be 20 minutes (it was 6:30 on a Wednesday night). We were finally seated 45 minutes. Not a big deal. That kind of thing happens in nice places all the time. So I let it go.
When we were seated, our waiter came by and, with as little enthusiasim as possible, took our drink orders. He didn’t return for a full 10 minutes. Unacceptable. Then he told us the specials and took our order, again with little interest in doing so. We didn’t see him again until the he brought us our check. I had to ask the girl who brought out our meal to refill our drinks. So we finally get the check and leave.
As you may have gathered from my Office Max experience, I HATE bad customer service. So after this experience, I decided I’d try a classic MickMel tactic: email the restaurant when I got home and tell them of my experience. He usually gets good results, so I figured I had nothing to lose. So I sent off my email.
The next day, I got a call at home from the managing partner at Stoney River. I wasn’t able to take the call, but he left a message that was very apologetic. He said that he wanted to talk to me about my experience and was very sorry that we had a bad experience. He kept leaving messages and I kept forgetting to call back. So finally, I called him back yesterday. We talked for a few minutes. I told him that the food was outstanding but the service left a lot to be desired.
He eventually asked for my address. He then told me that he was going to send a $100 voucher for us to use. He also told me that when we decided to use it, to call him and he would make sure that we wouldn’t have to wait to be seated. He also said he wanted to meet me in person and make sure that I understood that service was his top priority.
I was blown away. Most places would just send a form email response or a form letter. This guy called me and wanted to make sure I knew that he was working to correct the issue. I was very impressed. Needless to say, I think our next trip to Stoney River will be MUCH better.
Google claims their motto is to not be evil. I think that is incorrect.
I updated a couple of my blogs to the new Google version of Blogger under the promise that I would still be able to use and interact with those blogs that had not yet been switched to the new version. That is incorrect. I’ve tried for the last 10 minutes to post a comment on a Blogger post and have been unsuccessful, because that particular blog hasn’t been switched to the new version. Whenever I try to post a comment, I am forced to login under my Google ID and then I can’t post my comment any more.
This seems to be the norm recently with many of the Google products I’ve used recently. For as much as the press praises Google, you’d think that everything they do is golden. Not true. A lot of their stuff flat out sucks. Maybe they should concentrate less on releasing these new “cool” products and perfect the stuff that is FAR LESS than perfect now (like this Blogger thing).
So much for the greatness of Google.
This is hilarious.
Someone has set up a blog posing a Drew Bledsoe after he was benched in favor of Tony Romo. Read some of the posts. They are awesome. Anyway, he’s doing a live blog “from the sidelines of the Dallas/Seattle play-off game. To participate, go here:
I’ll admit that I did consider getting a PS3 and unloading it on eBay. The thought of making 3 to 4 times what I paid for it was very enticing.
Nick Saban has accepted the head coach gig at Alabama.
I am a happy man.
And as expected, the Bama haters are already out in full swing.
Last week, Alabama was no longer the top notch program that could land a top notch coach. Today we land a top notch coach and now the columnists come out to bash our coach. This is why I read less and less of ESPN. They are more fickle than politicians on every subject. (And their fickleness applies not only to Alabama, but other schools/teams/etc.).
But really, nothing can ruin this day for me. Saban is our coach. Demeco Ryans won Defensive Rookie of the Year. Alabama basketball is 13-1 and ranked 8th in the country.
I have officially grown tired of the media hoopla surrounding my beloved Crimson Tide’s search for a new football coach. Especially the part involving Nick Saban.
While I think it would be nice to land Saban as coach, I highly doubt that he will end up at Alabama. And the worst part of it is that people seem to want to tell me how stupid I am and my university is for thinking that Saban will be the next coach.
Two things to point out:
1) As I’ve already stated, I don’t think Saban will leave Miami. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love it if he did, but I don’t think he will.
2) Why is my university stupid for going after Saban?? Is it wrong that we want one of the best college coaches of the last decade?? Is there a problem having really high expectations for your program and your coach??
The problem is that in recent years, Alabama’s athletic director, Mal Moore, has made a mockery out of the program with foolish hires (Mike Price and Mike Shula), so now that he is trying to rectify that and hire a good coach, people think he has lost his mind and that the status of the Alabama program has slipped. And that’s not the case.
The fact is that when we are not battling probation and sanctions, Alabama is one of the top programs in the country. Hell, even when we were on probation, we had coaches that won 10 games a season and landed top 15 recruiting classes…WHILE ON PROBATION AND DEALING WITH SCHOLARSHIP REDUCTIONS.
I just get sick of hearing about how stupid we are for trying to land a good coach and having to hear about how Alabama fans are living in the past. If we were living in the past, we’d still be trying to hire one of Bear’s boys again. But the last few coaches we’ve hired had little or no association with Bear Bryant. Shula played at Bama, but not for the Bear. Price and Franchione had no associations with Alabama at all.
Sorry if this post sounds whiny; I just get tired of hearing all this crap every day. I guess I’ll get my sweet revenge on everyone if Saban is hired as coach… 
