The Absinthe Weblog

The Stock Market Is Nuts

2008-11-12T15:21:00.002-05:00

Ok, I'm not a financial guru, expert, or even really well informed. However, one of the local stocks I follow is Paetec. I follow them because they're local, they're theoretically growing, and they're building a brand new corporate headquarters in downtown Rochester. I also own a whopping 140 share, that I purchased at $1.54 per share. That was an initial investment of only $215.60 (that includes the cost of the trade).

Today, their stock is hovering around .82 cents. That means that my 140 shares are currently worth a whopping $114.80. Now, on a personal basis, this isn't a big deal. It's basically a hundred bucks. I'll probably blow that on two or three reasonable bottles of wine in the not-too-distant future. However, look at things based on the total number of outstanding shares.

Paetec currently has 146,070,000 share outstanding and a market cap of just under $120 million. Their 52-week high was $12.75 per share. So, do the math and at that time the company had a market cap of $1.86 billion. My question is, is Paetec a $120 million dollar company or a $1.86 billion dollar company? Tomorrow they release their 3rd quarter earnings report, so that should be a good indication of at least the recent past, and may provide some guidance on the next few quarters. And we know that the economy is bad, so that undoubtedly plays a role in things. But did this company really lose $1.74 billion in value over a 52-week period? Oh, and while I haven't done the research to prove it, I'm pretty sure that the stock has only been trading as PAET for about a year.

I'll be very interested to see what they report tomorrow, but no matter what it is, I can't believe that they suddenly became only a fraction of their previous value on anything other than an emotional response to the market and the short-term belief that telecom is going bust (again). Given that the market and the overall economy moves in a cyclical pattern, this could be one hell of an inexpensive opportunity to buy shares in a company that I have no reason to believe is going to shut down soon.

Obviously, my own little personal stake is that if PAET goes back up to $10 a share I suddenly have $1400, rather than about $115. And, looking more broadly on Paetec's impact on the local economy and the psyche locally about how things are going, a higher stock price will obviously allay some fears that this firm is going bye-bye.

But isn't that the case with most of the big employers locally? Let's take a look at some of the other big guys in town:

Kodak - $7.44/share
Xerox - $6.65/share
Corning - $9.16/share
Paychex - $25.33/share
Harris - $33.48/share
Constellation - $10.86/share
Time Warner - $8.70/share

Really? These companies are only worth a fraction of their pre-economic-shitfest valuations? Suddenly assets such as cash, intellectual property, plant and land, goodwill, etc., etc., etc., are worthless? I know there are large chunks of debt associated with all of these firms, as well as future liabilities for obligations they must pay. But talk about a buying opportunity for people. Again, I'm no expert, and maybe I'm stupid here, but Kodak at $7.44 has got to be worth less than the amount of cash they have in the bank.

Also, I wonder how hard hit a company like Paychex would be in a down economy. Sure, firms will reduce payrolls, and some will go out of business, but are companies really going to be looking to do their own payroll rather than outsource it? If anything, given the still relatively small market penetration of outsourced payroll services, I would think Paychex could significantly profit from an economic downturn if they can show small and mid-sized companies how much they'll ultimately save by outsourcing their payroll services.

I guess in conclusion, Paetec's 1-year price estimate is currently standing at $4.50/share... I'll be very interested to see if it's even close. Regardless, I'm going to throw a little more into the pot and see what happens. At 83-cents, is it much of a gamble?

Northgate Plaza #2

2008-11-04T12:45:00.002-05:00

I'm still hung up on this Northgate Plaza stuff. In the next week or so I'm going to go around and take photos of each storefront and post them here, just to give the Plaza some context, and maybe a little historical perspective. Unfortunately, there are no historical photos of the plaza that I can find! I was hoping the Monroe County Library might have some, but alas... no.

I'm still thinking in terms of other stores that could, in a perfect world, be located at the site and be acceptable to the community. One thing I was thinking of is a Sonic Drive-Through. Sonic, as far as I know, doesn't have any locations in Western NY. Now, maybe Sonic would have too many cars, but for only $2 to $4 million, you can put a Sonic at the Plaza. Granted, you'd need to build a new building, but howabout instead of a new McDonalds, tear down that side of the Plaza and put in a Sonic?

Locally, Great Northern Pizza just expanded into Henrietta. They were bought by 2 Hot LLC which also owns all the Bruegger's Bagles shops in town, and appear to have gotten a needed facelift. I know there was one in Greece on Ridge Road in an old bank building, and I did use it regularly, but it was really poorly managed and always felt dirty. I'd LOVE to have a brand new Great Northern Pizza located right there.

Heck, I'd love to see a Bruegger's at Northgate. I don't believe there is one nearby, and it'd be a great addition. I know I'm kindof focused on food, but food can be a major attraction that leads to retail. And again, I'm afraid given the demographics of the area around the plaza, there isn't enough money to justify some more boutique-esque retail. Other suggestions for smaller shops, especially ones that aren't currently in the area, would be appreciated!

Northgate Plaza

2008-10-22T12:11:00.002-04:00

I live in Greece, NY - a north west suburb of Rochester. I actually live right on the border of the Charlotte neighborhood, which is actually the City of Rochester. I'm in about the oldest part of the town of Greece, and it many ways it shows. My street is actually pretty nice. The neighbors keep up their properties, and the "bad" properties of recent years have seen some very nice upgrades, so the street actually looks better than it did when we moved on. Now, unfortunately, the apartment complex on the corner of my street had a major fire a few weeks ago, so a big chunk of that building will likely be town down, so god only knows what's going to happen there.

My street is off another residential street, Denise, that intersects Dewey Avenue and Lake Avenue. It's the Dewey side that's troubling. The problem is, this strip is basically a commercial strip that had seen much better days. And a big problem is Northgate Plaza. Northgate, at one time, had stores like McCurdy's, Woolworths, and a mix of other small shops. Today, it has a Big Lots (with a sign that doesn't light up), and a few things that I do thoroughly enjoy... like the Hallmark Store, Tony's Birdland, and my bank is there too. In fact, since I've moved there, the Citizens Bank totally redid their space, and now it's a beautiful modern bank. But the rest of the plaza is really sad. There used to be a Video King Supercenter that we used all the time. That has now closed, and my wife and I have this running joke about a shopping cart that is in the window there that hasn't moved since they closed the store. The other end of the plaza has a bunch of empty stores, and a few stores that I just don't use. There is also what might be the slowest, 24-hour McDonald's, in the history of mankind. I've only been there once since I've lived there, but that one time was painfully slow.

There's a proposal on the table to tear down most of Northgate and put in a Walmart Supercenter. Now, it's a smaller version of most supercenters, but it's still planned to have a garden center, grocery store, and regular walmart component. Now, is this the greatest thing in the world? Of course not! In fact, I've only personally been to Walmart about a half dozen times in my life. But, the prospect of having a clean, well maintained plaza is attractive. The community is up in arms because they're afraid a Walmart here will bring in more traffic, crime, and lowered property values. I would argue that these people chose to live across from a commercial plaza, and you get what you pay for. And, there are some good barriers in place so that the plaza does not infringe on the residential neighborhoods. And, there are probably some ways to further close off the residential streets so that trucks and shoppers don't cut through, and I fully support that.

The other problem that opponents talk about is that they want to see a mix of smaller stores, and maybe some mixed use space, with residential as a component. Would I be thrilled if instead of a Walmart there was something that was a mix of, say, a Barnes & Noble, Camille's Sidewalk Cafe, Coldstone Creamery, Bath & Body Works, a small gardening store, and retention of the Hallmark Store, Radio Shack, Tony's Birdland, and Citizens Bank... as well as a new McDonald's building?! Of course! Is that going to happen? Do the demographics of the area - an older, working class neighborhood - support that kind of development?

If it does, then I'll run to the polls and vote for whomever can make that happen. But my guess is, that the area doesn't support that kind of development. Maybe it's an "if you build it, they will come" kind of thing, but that's the same kind of argument that public transportation advocates make for putting in a Rochester light rail system. I'd love to see something other than a Walmart, but I'm also a realist, and if no one is willing to invest in a property, other than Walmart, then that may be the only, or best, option.

Giuseppe Quintarelli

2008-10-15T20:53:00.002-04:00

Ok, this is a departure from my last few posts, but as my friends know, I'm a huge wine fan. In fact, as I write this, I've already consumed half a bottle of 2002 Heitz Napa Cabernet, and a half a bottle of Hess Cab. Granted, the Heitz cost about 4x the Hess, but we started with the Heitz and then decided we needed more wine.

Anyway, I'm now on a mission. To learn as much as possible about Giuseppe Quintarelli as I can. And let me tell you, it's not an easy task. If you google him, you only get so much before the information becomes redundant. Why Wine Spectator, particularly in it's most recent edition which focuses on Italian wines, doesn't spend a little time on Quintarelli, I guess we'll never know. But considering how amazing his wines are supposed to be, I would hope Wine Spectator, of all magazines, would have spent some time finding and interviewing this guy.

So, just for the reader's information, I reproduce the following tidbit:

"It is the Chateau d'Yquem of Italy, absent the grandeur. It is IWM's fastest selling wine, yet has no marketing. It is the coveted gem of the Boot, but does not bear the prestigious name Sassicaia or Gaja. It is a legendary winery, without an estate. Its bottles are identified by hand scripted labels that provide a glimpse into the heart and soul of the world’s truest artisanal winemaker. It is Quintarelli!

Known as "the Master of the Veneto," Giuseppe Quintarelli makes some of the world’s most sought-after wines. From aperitifs to digestifs, his limited production Amarones, Reciotos, and Valpolicellas are the benchmark for excellence (along with Dal Forno, Veneto's other legendary producer). Their greatness stems from the inherent quality of the terroir and natural talent of this master, whose concept of vintage approval and strict grape selection rival the great Chateau of Sauternes. Giuseppe puts his wines on the market when he deems them ready, often keeping them in the cellar for decades until the right moment arrives."

How can this not be compelling?! So, yeah, I just dropped $280 on a magnum of the stuff. It's not the Amarone. I wish it were. But there was none available, and the price would have been much higher. So I got a magnum of 1997 Giuseppe Quintarelli Valpolicella Classico. I'm really looking forward to getting it, and will likely open it at a restaurant in town called Bacco. I'll be sure, of course, to post an analysis of the wine once it's been consumed. Oh, and it is a magnum, so it might be a good idea if another couple of people came along for dinner! I may save this for my 32nd b-day on 2/1/2009. If you're interested in joining Julie and me, let me know!

Governor Patterson Needs NYers Support

2008-10-09T20:11:00.002-04:00

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reports that the NYS Senate and Assembly want to wait before acting on Governor Patterson's request to cut an additional $2 billion from the State's budget. Apparently, they want to see the most accurate revenue projections before deciding on further cuts. They also refuse to talk about cuts in education funding. Now, with the Dow going under 8600 today, isn't it time to start looking for additional cuts to the state budget?

Unfortunately, we're talking about cutting education. But then again, there aren't that many areas that we can cut. Health care is generally off the table too. And, while now would seem to be the time to pull together some real structural reforms to these various systems, state government just kind of moves along as if everything is dandy. Maybe I'm just ignorant, and unaware of some very hard work to reform medicaid, the welfare system, education, and a host of other state supported functions. But my guess is they're not really tackling these issues.

And on the local level, whatever happened to the ongoing discussions around government consolidations? I'm not necessarily talking about the very politically unpopular idea of merging City and County governments, but what about those areas that are not political hot potatoes? Like lighting, water, snow plowing, and some other "low hanging fruit"? The problem with consolidation, though, is that no one is willing to give up power, and that's what consolidation is.

If I'm running Environmental Services for the City, am I willing to give up power to the County to manage things like dog licenses, dead animal removal, street sweeping, underpass cleaning, and a host of other functions? Am I willing to lay off government workers, and thus decrease my sphere of influence? If our leaders really wanted to make a difference, the conversation on government consolidation would be restarted, especially now.

The fact is that the economy may be in the doldrums for the next few years. Why not start the process of making government more efficient today, so that when the economy is growing again, the government entities that are left prosper even more? Do the City or the County really relish the annual announcements of budget deficits, cuts to essential services, and political wrangling to suggest that if only the Dem's or the Repub's were in control of things, we wouldn't be in this mess?

We have an opportunity in New York State and the Rochester region (obviously, Syracuse, Buffalo, et al do as well) to significantly improve the efficiency of government, laying the groundwork for successful government, and maybe even State, County and City budget surpluses when times are good again. Imagine if we were to improve the efficiency of City and County government by, oh, let's just pick a number... 22%. When the economy is roaring again, this more efficient government would see significant increases in tax revenues (sales tax, hotel/motel tax, property tax, etc.) that, if managed properly, could be set aside to make up for shortfalls in bad times. Granted, you'd have to legislate so that surpluses had to go into the equivalent of an endowment - as we all know government likes nothing more than to spend spend spend.

Sure, my IRA has seen it's value drop by nearly 50% over the last 6 months... but this is also an opportunity to invest more in quality stocks and mutual funds so that I can reap the benefits when the economy is strong again. Similarly, let's take this as an opportunity to increase the quality of government through enhanced efficiency. The opportunity is real, and the degree of urgency is high!

Last Night's Debate

2008-10-08T09:14:00.002-04:00

So, last night was Round 2 of the Obama/McCain debates and what have we learned? Well, we've learned that John McCain supports the Treasury buying up bad mortgages from people too stupid to not buy homes that fall within their means (potentially a $300 billion bailout), and we've learned that Barrack Obama supports nuclear energy "as one component" of an overall energy independence program. See, I had to stretch with what we learned about Obama, because there was little, if any, new information provided. I'm not saying that McCain was overflowing with answers either, but there was something about his answers that seemed better informed than Mr. Obama's.

I did think Obama did an excellent job of answering the question of how the bailout will affect the average American. He's hit a home run linking businesses (large or small) ability to survive without access to cash. According to Mr. Obama, businesses risk not making payroll and thus potentially laying people off. Now, whether or not that's a totally accurate portrayal of the bailout is kind of irrelevant to me. It was a good answer and it's an answer that most people can understand.

I'll also admit that I didn't focus 100% on the debate last night. I was also surfing the web, going on Ebay and winebid.com, and checking my Facebook account. As Drudgereport is blasting this morning, "B O R I N G," I have to agree. However, I was impressed with Mr. McCain's overall demeanor last night, and give him a B+. I wish he would stop saying "my friends." It bugs me, and it's condescending. I'm not his friend, and the average American out there is not his friend. To me it feels insincere, even if he truly is being sincere. Please, stop saying "my friends."

But otherwise, he did do a good job. I thought that he took on energy independence well - stating a need for more investment in alternative energy sources including nuclear, wind, solar, tidal, etc. I thought he was strong on the message of reining in government spending. I may personally want to see federal earmarks for projects that I support, but Mr. McCain has a track record of trying to reduce frivolous spending. He also does have a track record of working both sides of the aisle. We have to remember one fundamental thing about John McCain - he truly is this maverick that SNL has been parodying. He's a maverick in the sense that he's willing to go outside the Big R political ideology, work with Democrats, compromise when it's needed, and stick to his guns when he feels he's right. He really DID work with Senator's Feingold, Leiberman, and Kennedy on joint legislation.

I just get the sense that Mr. Obama, on the other hand, is too conciliatory and lacks the ability to make a decision when things get difficult. Where are the Obama-"Insert Republican Senator's Name Here" co-sponsored bills? I certainly haven't heard about them, though I suppose they may exist. Of course, you would think Mr. Obama would want to diffuse McCain's "maverick" label by showing that he too is a maverick, or at the very least bipartisan. But my guess is that Obama's record doesn't support a bipartisan label.

Last night may have been an exhibition of talking points, personal attacks (albeit, not very vigorous ones), and light-weight answers to difficult problems, but it was still a good illustration of the difference between the two candidates. I'm not about ready to stand from the rooftops proclaiming, "Vote for John McCain!" quite yet, but unless I see some spark out of the Obama campaign, I have to stick with my political leanings and vote R.

McCain and his cars

2008-09-22T10:00:00.004-04:00

I haven't written anything on this blog for a long time, and I'm amazed I'm taking a few minutes to do it, but I read an article this morning about John McCain owning 13 cars and the negative fallout from it. It's not that he just owns 13 cars, it's that he also owns 2 foreign cars - a Honda and a Volkswagen. This, according to McCain-haters, shows that he's (a) a liar because he said he only drives American cars, (b) out of touch with the average American who probably only owns one car, and (c) destroying the American auto-industry because of the two foreign-made cars. There's also outrage from the UAW because McCain may have purchased a Toyota Prius for his daughter (or, it's possible the daughter bought it herself... that's still unclear.)

What is clear, however, is that McCain's own driver is a 2004 Cadillac CTS. The other American-made cars in his fleet include a 2007 half-ton Ford pickup, a 1960 Willys Jeep, a 2008 Jeep Wrangler, a 2000 Lincoln, a 2001 GMC SUV and three 2000 NEV Gem electric vehicles. But the killer is a 2005 Volkswagen convertible and a 2001 Honda sedan. So, that's 2 foreign cars to 9 American-made cars. Now, that's only 11 cars, but they're also counting the Prius that McCain's daughter drives, and a Lexus that Cindy McCain drives, but is actually owned by her beer-distributor company. So, worst case, that's 4 foreign to 9 domestic.

And, apparently you have to forget that Honda employs over 25,000 Americans, and VW will soon open a plant in Tennessee that'll employ another 2,000 people. But those employees are not UAW members, so they're both bad employers and probably bad employees too.

As the owner of a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid, let me just say one thing to the UAW and the American auto industry in response to the Prius issue. IF YOU WANT ME TO BUY AN AMERICAN-MADE HYBRID CAR, BUILD SOMETHING THAT'S NOT A LARGE SEDAN OR A SPORT-UTILITY VEHICLE! I'm not interested in going from a giant gas-guzzler getting 12 mpg, to now getting 19 mpg. Nor am I interested in a sedan that goes from 22 to 29. Honda realized that people don't want that, and ended their Hybrid Accord. If I'm buying a Hybrid car, I want 40 to 60 miles-per-gallon.

I had made a decision, based on my driving requirements, that a small hybrid car made sense. That limited me to a Civic or a Prius. I personally liked the design and style of the Civic over the Prius, the cost was lower, and the government tax incentive to buy a Civic was better. That's right... the U.S. government incentivized the purchase of my foreign car in the name of global warming. So, which is it... buy green, or buy American?

I can't begrudge McCain's family for either owning 13 cars, or owning a few foreign ones in there. If anything, the McCains have done more than their fair share to support the American worker. I would bet that if you really looked at those foreign cars, you'd find they were either assembled in America, or included a lot of American-made parts. More and more, foreign car manufacturers are recognizing that they have to manufacture their cars closer to the market. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW, Subaru, and lots of other foreign car companies build cars right here.

In a 2007 USA Today article, How American is that car?" there's a great list showing the percentage of American and Canadian made content, plus which cars were assembled in America. A great indicator of how ridiculous this argument is is the Honda Acura TL (as an example of a Honda sedan). The 2007 Honda Acura TL was made with 70% American/Canadian parts and assembled in Ohio. This was also the case for the Honda Accord. My own Civic Hybrid is 55% American/Canadian parts.

Let's drop this one as a topic of debate. Just because a car has a foreign badge on it, does not make it un-American to own, nor is it contributing to the downfall of the American auto industry. The unions and car companies are doing a fine job of that on their own.

Lamberton Conservatory

2008-02-17T21:06:00.003-05:00

So, this afternoon we were looking for something to do with Audrey. It was already about 2pm, and it's not exactly great outside, so that kind of limits what we can do. Also, since Audrey can't walk yet, it's not like we can go somewhere where she can play - for example, the Strong Museum of Play, which is somewhere we really would like to go.

Anyway, we ended up going to the Lamberton Conservatory in Highland Park. It's right off of South Avenue on Reservoir. I haven't been there for several years, so I was looking forward to it. What's really nice is, even on a cold crappy day (albeit, today was in the 40s, and not too bad out) it's fantastic inside. There's a great array of plants from tropical to dessert. For some pics, check out my facebook account - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1052074477.

What struck me is, what a great, totally underutilized space! For $2.00, I COULD go inside, find a nice spot, sit down and read a book. It's very quiet, and comfortable, and could be much more. I could soooooo see them adding a coffee cart, wireless internet connection, and maybe another wing to the place. Ok, maybe another wing is a bit much, but they could certainly add coffee and wireless. In fact, it might be a good way to raise some additional funding to build a new wing to the place!

It's a boy!

2008-02-09T08:45:00.001-05:00

Well, now the balance of power shifts back to the male side in the Gottfried household. We recently found out we're having a boy! Now I'll have someone to do all those father-son things with. Let's see... what father-son things did my dad and I do? Well, we regularly went booze shopping, and bought a fair amount of smoked fish, and um, yeah... let's see....

So, I'll have to figure out some stuff to do, but it shouldn't be a problem. And who knows, maybe Audrey will also be into booze and smoked fish?

Anyway, I'll be sure to update this with some of the ultrasound pics, as soon as the DVD arrives.

On another totally different topic, there have been a bunch of interesting developments going on for Downtown Rochester. A couple months ago, it was announced that Midtown Plaza would be torn down, the site remediated, and a new $100 million, 25 story (or so) tall headquarters for Paetec Communications would be built on a portion of the site. Well, two more interesting things happened over the past week. The first thing is, they broke ground on the first major residential project in High Falls where the old Kodak Visitor's Parking Lot was - across from the old Empire Brewing Company site. There's also another good sized residential development going up in the East Ave area down by The Little Theatre. And someone is converting one of the last old vacant industrial buildings inside the inner loop into more residential space. (I may go out today and take some pictures to add to a post later today). And in theory, there's another downtown residential project happening where the parking garage helix came crashing down a couple years ago.

Yesterday, it was announced that ESL Federal Credit Bureau would build a new corporate headquarters in Downtown across the street from the Strong Museum of Play. It's a $50 million project, with a six story building and a new parking garage on just over 3 acres.

After this announcement, next year the City will actually look like a growing place! There'll be at least three major construction projects going on downtown, with the possibility of 2 or 3 more. Plus, the Western Gateway project will be moving onto the next stage, which is basically resurfacing the entire chunk of I-490 from the City out towards the canal overpass.

Very cool stuff. Assuming I get the chance to take some "before" pics, I'll try to post them tonight.

Another nap, another post

2007-12-15T11:59:00.000-05:00

Well, Audrey is soundly sleeping (I hope), which gives me some time to write something. So, what's new... what's new....

Well, to start, you can start calling Audrey "Big Sister" cause there's a little one on the way! At this point, Julie is 12-weeks in, so there's still a lot of time - her due date is in late June. I'll have to scan the ultrasound pic so you can see the little guy/gal. It's obviously WAY too soon to tell what the sex of the new baby is, and once again, names are secret... so we'll be holding off on making that announcement.

So, this means that the house is about to get a lot smaller. Our spare bedroom will likely become another nursery. If it's a girl, there's a chance we'll just double up in Audrey's room, but I'm thinking regardless, we're losing the spare bedroom. This also means our plans on staying in our current home for another 5 years or so seems unlikely. So I guess it's time to at least start looking for possible future homes. Now, we haven't really discussed it too much, but I really want to more somewhere more centrally located. In a perfect world, the City schools would be the best in the world... so we could move into the City. But once you get past elementary school, the City schools kindof suck.

I'd really like to be in Brighton, Webster, Penfield, or Pittsford. I personally like Brighton because it's still nice and close to all our favorite City activities, and it's also near lots of good food, Pittsford Wegmans, both I-490 and I-590, and will be WAY more convenient for me - assuming that I'm still driving to Canandaigua for a few more years. In fact, even if I weren't, it's still more convenient.

So, what else is new? Well, business is going well. I picked up a very nice client in Pittsford who has lots of potential. And, they have space there, in case I ever needed any. I started a new business - BiSen Technologies, Inc. with a group of partners. We're commercializing a sensor technology from Infotonics that one of my partners invented while a contract scientist at Infotonics. We were developing it with some pre-seed funding from Cornell/Infotonics. The initial market-segment we're going after is the dairy industry, although there's the potential for the sensor to be used in apple juice/cider. The response from the farming community has been fantastic. In fact, if we had a working system right now, some of these guys would have bought systems right away. So, the big issue now is whether or not we can get a proof of concept, or even a working prototype. We've submitted a Phase I SBIR to the USDA, and this week we submit to another USDA program for a two-year R&D program, so hopefully one of those will pan out. What I really need is about $120K to get to a working prototype for detection of a single organism. In order to detect the array of things we want to, however, we're probably looking at a minimum of $480K and a maximum of $3 million. The $3 million would actually allow us to target two very high priority organisms - cryptosporidium and mycoplasma. If we can do that, then our technology has the potential to take off in the biomedical marketplace. In addition to BiSen, Javelin itself is doing quite well. Infotonics is really starting to pick up speed - and if the state of New York would just reimburse us on a reasonable schedule, we'd be in amazing shape.

So, otherwise, things are going pretty good. Here are some new pictures for your enjoyment... including our Christmas tree!

Wow, it's been a long time!

2007-12-09T12:10:00.000-05:00

And my brother apparently is annoyed every time he comes here and sees the same post time after time. So, here's my best attempt at updating the weblog while Audrey is sleeping and I have a few moments to myself. Julie is also home, but she had to work last night, so she's upstairs sleeping. I'm hoping she's up around 2pm, though, so that we can head over to Mary Maida's open house, and then go get a Christmas tree. I got the space all set up - it's going to be in the dining room, rather than the living room... I just hope it fits. If not, we'll just have to move things around a bit in the living room to make it work.

So, I'm going to write a little on what I've been up to recently, but before I get into that, I'm going to post what most people are probably interested in... baby pics! So, here we go...

OK... and since Blogger only lets you do 5 pics at a time... here's some more!

And last, but not least...

OK... so hopefully people will be happy with the pics.

So, what else is up? Tons of stuff! But unfortunately, uploading all those pics took up so much time that I don't have the time to really say everything. I'm going to really try to do it later tonight after our day is basically done... that way I might even be able to post a couple pics of the new tree. Cheers!

FINALLY!

2007-08-05T18:50:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally reset my password and can now post on my blog again. Why Google decided it made sense to change the way Blogger worked, I really don't know... but it sure was a pain in the ass. I'm also posting the occasional update on my javelin-group.com website blog, and from time to time, add stuff to my Myspace page.

Anyway, I've got TONS of stuff that I'd like to add to the blog - especially pictures of Audrey! It's been months, and she's a little person now! Now, God only knows if anyone still checks my blog, so please leave a comment if you did in fact visit and saw this update. As a taste, here's a pic!

The Apprentice

2007-04-15T23:01:00.000-04:00

I just watched my first episode of this season's The Apprentice. I think I'm glad I don't watch this show. The remaining contestants are supposed to be the top four prospects out of millions of applications to be the next Trump apprentice? OK, ok... I'm sure all the real successful young people are too busy making their own millions than to deal with Trump (damn, did I see Trump Vodka at Whitehouse the other day?!), so the pool of prospective candidates is already limited. But these people are such, uh, douchbags. None of them are likeable, and I wouldn't want to work with any of them.

Having only seen this one example of their collective business genious, maybe I'm missing something. I also don't know their backgrounds - nor do I care to find out. The Asian dude from Seattle is an "internet business owner," WTF does that mean? Are there really still internet businesses out there? The meat-head white guy seemed pretty good, but he's a MEAT-HEAD-WHITE-GUY. I shouldn't be able to describe one of the top business prospects in America as a MEAT HEAD. (Negative, I am a meat popsicle.)

There are two chicks left. One is really annoying, the other struck me as annoying, but quieter. Apparently, in order for women to succeed in business, they cannot just be smart, hard working tacticians. They need to be obnoxious.

So, next week, The Donald will pick one of these four remaining folks to be his ostensible apprentice. I may actually watch what will undoubtedly be a hourlong blame-fest so that the least incompetent will hang on long enough to not be fired. Add lots and lots of commercials and entertainment ensues. I wonder what really becomes of the past winners of this show. Did they get jobs that they kept? Did they go back to their own businesses? Did they love working for Trump, or hate it? Was it really an apprenticeship - where Trump took them under his wing and tought them everything he's learned from a lifetime of whatever the heck it is he's done? Have they become more successful in their business endeavors as a result? Or is this just reality television, where the contestants don't have an interest in following through with the "winning". How many reality marriages have been successful? (Flavor Flav!!)

Kodak Venture Program

2007-03-29T20:59:00.000-04:00

I'm reading a very interesting book on business incubators, and there's a great paragraph in the early history of incubation that goes as follows:

"Kodak established a major corporate venturing program in the early 1980s and attracted over 4000 internal venture proposals. Some 300 of these received seed funding, more than 100 were commercialized as separate units or adopted internally, and only 14 became new businesses, spun into the holding company, Eastman Technologies. By 1990, only one of these was still operating independently as a Kodak subsidiary and in 1989 Kodak announced it was discontinuing new venture activity. "

That really makes me appreciate what my dad had to go through to get DISCUS Electronic Training up and running, and eventually purchased by Kodak. I did a Google search on "Eastman Technologies" and found a fantastic description of the environment that fostered this development:

"Creating the venture capital arm called Eastman Technologies in the mid-80s meant that Kodak generously funded some innovative startup companies, like the one I worked for, Edicon Systems Division. The entrepreneurial design teams for the (dozen? I think--can't remember) venture companies were made up of thinkers, hard workers, scientists, patent-holders, and really brilliant, mostly passionate people. The brainpower and spirit of innovation at Edicon and the other Ventures in the late 80s and early 90s was real. I saw it. I felt it. There was, in truth, a dot-com spirit pre-dot-com, in those days. Ventures were staffed by the brightest and best from in and (more importantly) outside of the company in the beginning. Out-of-the-box (pun intended) thinkers who thought they could make a difference in the world, or at least in the world of technology and digital imaging.   If Kodak had launched Eastman Technologies ten years later, something would have popped for the old red and yellow box. I am 97-percent sure of that. "

Wow. Exactly what I'd like to see happen again in Rochester, and a big reason why I'm so eager to get the Infotonics Commercialization Center off the ground. Unfortunately, there are forces in play that have little interest in economic development, more more interest in gaining power, influence, and spending taxpayers money (which they have no feelings of responsibility to spend with care.) 

GREAT shot...

2007-03-27T20:19:00.000-04:00

Audrey is getting bigger

2007-03-26T19:10:00.000-04:00

We had our 4 month checkup today... and she's still in the 95th percentile for length, weight, and head circumference. Yup, she's growing like a weed! Of course, today also meant shots... which weren't particularly appreciated. So, it was also a long day for the little one. Here's some new pics to enjoy!

Nice When Your Projects Pan Out

2007-03-22T16:50:00.000-04:00

Well, one of the many projects I've been working on for the past year or so for Infotonics finally panned out. While I'm getting absolutely no credit, I'll at least be kindof boastful on my own weblog.

This will ultimately result in the creation of a new business incubator in the Rochester region. We're already lining up companies to fill the space, and I'm hoping if we have a dozen companies located here, we can help them grow some significant news jobs. Now if some of the other things I've been working on also pan out, Infotonics itself will have a whole lot more sound financial future.

Here's the story that ran in today's D&C:

$3M grant to expand Infotonics Center

Matched by state, it's expected to result in as many as 200 jobs.

Daniel Wallace
Staff writer

(March 22, 2007) — A number of high-paying jobs could be on the way to the Rochester area, thanks to a $3 million federal grant awarded Wednesday to the Infotonics Center in Canandaigua.

The grant, which was provided by the Economic Development Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce, will help the Canandaigua high-tech center expand its operations by 10 percent.

President and Chief Executive Officer David R. Smith said the expansion could generate as much as $130 million in private investments in the greater Rochester region.

"This expansion is important to our mission of creating high-tech jobs in western New York ... and is a significant investment for us," said the CEO.

According to Smith, the money will be matched by New York state, giving the technology company $6 million to enlarge its 120,000 square-foot facility.

"This grant is a huge boost to the Infotonics Center and Canandaigua," said Rep. Randy Kuhl, R-Hammondsport, who helped secure the grant.

Kuhl said the research efforts in microsystems, photonics, optics and information technology "are things that we only dreamed about a few years ago, and now that research is spinning off into job and revenue-creating businesses right here in our area."

According to a news release from Kuhl's office, the $3 million investment would help renovate the incubator space for startup photonics, information systems and optics businesses. It would also help in the construction of the Infotonics Commercialization Center and in the process could create about 200 jobs for region.

Infotonics helps smaller companies and entrepreneurs explore emerging technologies and new applications.

The Infotonics Center specializes in semiconductor microsystems, which are used to support televisions, inkjet printers and airbag censors.

In addition to the new funding, the Infotonics Center was the recipient of $1 million in defense research funding in the 2007 Defense Appropriations bill and $2 million in the 2006 Defense Appropriations bill.

"This investment will help Canandaigua generate a commercial environment that will attract entrepreneurs, business and capital," U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said in a statement supporting the project.

DJWALLAC@DemocratandChronicle.com

Yay! More Baby Pics!

2007-02-28T20:13:00.000-05:00

Here's some new baby pics from earlier today. Does she look like she's up for a fight in that one pic?

Simon Cowell is Lost

2007-02-27T20:09:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here watching American Idol, and the first male contestant of the night just finished. I thought he was pretty darn good. He joined the military after September 11th, and seems like a really likable guy. Plus his voice was really good. It kindof had a Sting-like quality. Randy and Paula gave their typically banal reaction, though they were positive responses, and then Simon described him as a good karaoke singer. Hmmm... if this guy's karaoke, I'm going to start going to karaoke concerts, cause he was pretty damn good. But I think Simon has lost touch with what it's going to take to win. Apparently he hasn't been watching his own show, cause it has little to do with the best talent, and more to do with who connects with the audience, or who has something "freakish" about them that voters can exploit and force the general public to see week after week.

Simon is apparently under the impression that talent has something to do with winning. This can't be the case. Other than Kelly Clarkson (who is talented - but also a pretty hot chick who undoubtedly won on her looks too), the others are all kindof freakish. Rueben Studdard is the incredibly fat black guy (or incredibly black fat guy?), Fantasia is freakishly, uh freakish, and Taylor Hicks has GREY HAIR and is also really weird. Oh yeah, I forgot about Carrie Underwood, who won in a particularly un-exciting fashion, and is pretty darn forgetable. She also won on her looks. Who was she up against? Some ugly dude? I don't even remember!

So Simon, get a grip. This contest has nothing to do with who is most likely to be a pop star. Or a rock star. Or any kind of star, other than perhaps freak show. None of the current contestants is outwardly freakish - maybe something will show up over the next few weeks. Perhaps "Beatbox dude" will wow us week after week with his beatboxing... which might be weird enough to keep him around forever - getting rid of better singers. I think Simon believes he's still on Pop Idol - but American's like to support weirdos, and I almost guarantee that another weirdo will win this year.

Downtown Housing Developments

2007-02-25T10:11:00.000-05:00

There've been a few stories in the local media recently about the boom in downtown housing developments. This is in the wake of such projects as the $15 million Sagamore on East project, the new condos built between Scio Street and The Little Theatre, and a ton of loft apartment projects going on within the inner loop. All really good stuff. And the new projects being planned are also fantastic - the new apartments to be added behind the project around The Little on Charlotte Street, two residential projects in High Falls - one a redo of the last old building down there, and the other a partnership with the Urban League and Kodak. Plus, my personal favorite, re-doing the old bath house building component into housing. In fact, I looked at that property a couple years ago too as a possible office building for a mix of small companies. Capron Place still needs a new buyer, as the original developer apparently went broke, but that will also be a great project across the street from the bath house.

So, I get a little disoriented when I start reading my New York Times Sunday Magazine and I see ads for new apartment buildings down there, with condos STARTING at anywhere from $1,500,000 or $1,950,000 up to $7,000,000. Wow. It makes you realize the nature of the real estate business! Here the debate has been over spending $7,000,000 on buying the Midtown complex from a NYC firm and managing redevelopment locally, which in NYC, $7 million gets you a nice place to live! For examples, check out here and here.

Not to mention, these new apartment buildings are AMAZING. They're basically giant glass towers with amazing views all around. Waterfront locations too. Now, the City of Rochester did this charette thing a few months ago - with one of the more interesting components being a 15 story residential building located on the site of the old parking garage helix. I think it's a fantastic idea - though the design sketch was kindof lame. It was very traditional and old fashioned. I wish we could be a little more forward thinking when it comes to architectural designs in the City - like the Strong Museum - but apparently design risks are one of the risks the community isn't willing to take.

Sleepy Bumbo

2007-02-20T20:56:00.000-05:00

Trader Joe's Too Good for Rochester?

2007-02-19T12:27:00.000-05:00

The Rochester D&C did an article recently on the difficulty of locating a grocery store in downtown Rochester. One company they interviewed was Trader Joe's. Apparently, Rochester is not on their radar. Really? I wonder if the success of Wegman's could possibly be our own worst enemy? I'm sure Trader Joe's is aware of Wegman's. And I'm also betting that like almost every other grocery store chain in the nation, they fear Wegman's tremendously. The basic reaction of the crappy grocery store chains is, "Oh shit... Wegman's... we're in trouble." From what I can see, this is because Wegman's is really, really, really good. They don't look at it like they're doing us a favor by providing groceries. They recognize the importance of the customer and treat them extremely well.

But this doesn't address the Trader Joe's (or any other niche grocery chain) not coming to Rochester. Clearly, there is a need for a downtown grocery store. And The Sagamore on East *might* be a good place for it, but god only knows. It would seem, however, that the East End would be a great location for a Grocery in the City. It's strategically located in one of the fastest growing areas of the City - and it's continuing to grow. There's going to be another great development on Charlotte street which will further boost residential numbers in the City. Given all the other new residential in the area, that screams "market opportunity" to me. Especially for a small format, Trader Joe's style grocery chain. Sure, Green Grocer just opened up on South Avenue, but they're not open really long hours, and they're closed entirely on Sundays. If the trend continues, I'm sure something will pop up. I'd love it to be Trader Joe's, but I won't hold my breath.

BUMBO!

2007-02-18T19:40:00.000-05:00

Let me repeat.... BUMBO! This is a big pink plastic chair that kind of molds to Audrey's shape to keep her sitting upright. This kiddo LOVES to be upright. In fact, when she goes from being held over mommy or daddy's shoulder to being held in our arms, her face slowly transforms from happy baby, to concerned baby, to angry baby and eventually to magenta rageful baby.

Anyway, here are some pics of her in her new Bumbo. She'll probably enjoy it more later, cause it was just before bedtime when we tried this out. Enjoy!

Lots more baby pics!

2007-02-14T13:19:00.000-05:00

Here's a bunch more new Audrey pics. Enjoy!

Smiley Baby!

2007-02-05T19:42:00.000-05:00

If this post needs clarification, please email me...

Audrey pics!

2007-01-16T21:07:00.000-05:00

Wanted to post some new Audrey pictures.... from Christmas and some recent ones done on some black velvet. Who can go wrong with naked baby pics?

James Brown? Nope. Hardest Working Man in Showbiz is....

2007-01-09T21:03:00.000-05:00

Ron Jeremy. OK, maybe not in 2007. His only film credit 9 days into 2007 is "Homo Erectus," what I'm sure is pure gold! Gold Jeremey! Gold! And come on, NINE days into 2007, that should be nine porno movies, but he's been so busy over his career he can afford to take a break. This is a man who's been in 975 movies from his beginnings in "Coed Teasers" as Dr. Burns (Mr. Burns' brother?) in 1978 until this year's movie where he plays someone named "Oog". And that doesn't include 134 instances of him being a director, 8 writing credits, and about 137 television credits, including this year's fantastic "The Surreal Life: Fame Games". I just watched the first episode, and with these kinds of numbers, Ron is definately A-List. He's worked harder, er, more frequently, than anyone else in showbusiness, except for maybe Mickey Rooney, who was in a much less impressive 305 movies or shorts between 1926 and 2007.

City School District Fraud story...

2006-12-29T18:05:00.000-05:00

I thought this was particularly interesting: State sues over defrauding of city schools.

A quick snippet from the story:

The district's former chief financial officer, Henry Marini, is named in the lawsuit, along with the Perrys, Spier, Filtered Internet Solutions Inc., Compression Technologies Inc., Partner Relationship Management Inc., Performance Brands Online Inc. and Perimeter Security Consulting Inc.

Spitzer's office said Andrew and Karen Perry and Peter Spier, with Marini's help, got 13 consulting contracts with the city using seven different company names. Twelve were for amounts between $24,000 and $24,900, which the state alleges was designed to evade review. The district requires school board approval of contracts for $25,000 or more.

What is interesting to me is, about 3 years ago, a former business associate mentioned that we should try and get a contract with the city school district. That, essentially, Henry Marini did these "deals" and that there was tons of money even though they (the Rochester City School District) were always claiming to be broke. Needless to say, it was not something we pursued - particularly given the amount of bad press that could occur given the school district's public perception. Not to mention, this kind of thing didn't pass the "smell test," and now apparently was obviously worse than fishy.

It's sad to see that there are so many people out there who claim to care about the community, but in reality don't care at ALL about stealing from the community because "everybody's doin' it!"

Best... baby.... ever!

2006-12-13T20:08:00.000-05:00

OK... just a quick pic, cause it was too darn cute.

Audrey with Aunt Alison and Uncle Russ

2006-12-03T20:26:00.000-05:00

What's really remarkable about these pictures is that Russ is actually HOLDING Audrey. He was clearly afraid of breaking the baby.... but after a little reassurance, he caved. Audrey was screaming bloody murder for a little while, but she eventually calmed down for some nice quite pics! Enjoy!

For a bit of compairson... here's Russ's expression on Friday... can you say worried?

Audrey Lyn Gottfried

2006-12-02T19:41:00.000-05:00

Everyone, please welcome Ms. Audrey Lyn Gottfried! Audrey was born on Friday, December 1st at 10:36pm. She was 8 pounds 9.2 ounces. Here are some of the first pictures of our little daughter - still less than 1 day old!

Cheesecake Factory coming to Rochestser!

2006-11-29T10:24:00.000-05:00

Woo-hoo! According to WHAM-TV 13 last night, The Cheesecake Factory is coming to Rochester! Here's the story: WHAM TV 13. Well, we had heard rumors a few months ago that they might be coming here - albeit I heard it would be at another, crappy location. This is the PERFECT location (other than downtown). I don't quite get the "this will be one of their smaller markets," piece... considering the metro is 49th largest in the USA.

Maybe now some smart folks at the other big chains will recognize the Rochester Metro as an important place to be *cough* IKEA *cough* Ruth's Chris Steak House *cough* Nordstroms. (And others, I'm sure... like easy ones! Like SONIC. I mean, how many Sonic commercials do I need to see on TV and not be able to give them my money?)

Thoughts on other national chains to come in here would be appreciated!

The Weather's Fine!

2006-11-26T09:35:00.000-05:00

For all those people out there who think Rochester weather is doom and gloom most of the year, here's the forecast for the next five days, following yesterday's beautiful, sunny, 63-degree day:

Toady: 62, sunny
Tomorrow: 59, mix of sun and clouds
Tuesday: 56, partly sunny
Wednesday: 58, sunny, chance of showers
Thursday: 57, rain likely

OK - so, rain's due for Thursday, and the weather will get colder on December 1st, but that's DECEMBER! It's SUPPOSED to be cold. It's been so nice, we even had our front door replaced. In fact, here is a picture of the new front door:

The old door was leaky, didn't shut right, and didn't have a deadbolt. The new door is fibreglass and airtight. And the new screendoor Julie's dad put in for us is a Pella and absolutely AMAZING (as screen doors go). It's got a pull down screen that rolls up into the door when not in use, thus creating no visual barriers. The next couple weeks will be busy with new electrical outlets being added to several rooms and in the front and backyard (as we currently have NO exterior outlets), followed by the entire house getting insulation blown in. They'll have to take off a few rows of siding to gain access to the walls, but everything will looks good as new once it's down. And hopefully the house will retain heat in the winter much better, and stay cooler in the summer. While Julie's dad does all this fantastic stuff, I still REALLY want to replace the basement windows with glass block. It's safer, lets in more light, and is far better insulated.

I sure hope our little baby daughter appreciated all these goodies! She'll be snug as a bug in a rug in her lovely nursery which is all insulated from the cold outdoors. Next BIG project to make it even better - new windows throughout the house. There are 24 of them (not including the basement, and two decorative windows in the dining room and entryway, or two windows that go between the living room and mudroom) which will be a BIG job, probably done in steps. Other projects include getting the chimney paint scraped off, and a crack sealed before it gets worse; re-seal the driveway next spring; finish the backyard landscaping; replaced the main water shut-off valve in the basement; and that's about it. We may also replace the fixtures in the powderroom downstairs, as the current ones are really, uh, BLUE, and don't fit with the style of the house. Damn This Old House Magazine!!! Why do you tempt me with so many home improvement projects?!

Nursery pictures

2006-11-21T18:05:00.000-05:00

Well, haven't had much time to post stuff in a while... so here's a ton of pictures. Most everything is built... except for that big pile of stuff that still needs to be built.

What the hell is WRONG with you people?!

2006-10-27T11:18:00.000-04:00

Read this please (from the D&C)....

State Comptroller Alan Hevesi's woes are starting to weigh heavily on voters.

The Democratic comptroller's lead over Republican foe J. Christopher Callaghan has plummeted 28 percentage points since last week --- after he was accused by the state Ethics Commission of violating state law by failing to reimburse the state for using a staffer to drive his ill wife, according to a poll released this morning. The Marist College poll showed Hevesi, leading Callaghan 50 percent to 38 percent among likely voters. That's down from a 62 percent to 22 percent lead a week earlier.

And the problems may be worse for Hevesi: When respondents were told that state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the leading candidate for governor, on Thursday withdrew his endorsement of Hevesi, Hevesi's lead dropped to 44 percent to 43 percent among registered voters, with 13 percent undecided.

However, 58 percent said Hevesi should not resign while 33 percent said he should. Sixty-one percent said Gov. George Pataki should not ask the state Senate to remove Hevesi while 30 percent said he should. Pataki is expected to do so later today.

"It shows a major erosion over the course of the last week," said Marist pollster Lee Miringoff. "They don't think he should resign and they don't support the beginning of any impeachment process." But with less than two weeks before Election Day, Nov. 7, the issue is "at this pace, the question is whether he can bottom out or not," Miringoff said.

The poll conducted Thursday night questioned 509 likely voters with a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent. The poll included 731 registered voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

OK.... what the heck is WRONG with you people? How much FRAUD must take place before it's OK to ask for someone's resignation? I was watching Top Chef the other night, and this one guy actually TOOK HIMSELF OUT OF THE COMPETITION for not paying for a box of lycee. What could that have cost? $200?! We're talking about fraud on NYS taxpayers of at LEAST $80,000, and likely much more. But how apathetic are NYS voters if they don't think Hevesi should resign? Or that the NYS Senate should proceed with impeachment hearings? If it turns out he defrauded the people of New York hundreds of thousands of dollars while at the same time pronouncing his fiscal responsibility isn't there something WRONG going on here? Doesn't that warrant his resignation? Or at least an investigation? Apparently the people of New York are so accustomed to fraud going on here, and have lowered their mores so much that this doesn't matter to them. Foreshame!

My Congressional District Race

2006-10-20T19:24:00.000-04:00

I'm in Tom Reynold's district, and chances are, unless something occurs between today and the election, I'll vote for him. Even though his opponent is a small business owner, Jack Davis shouldn't be elected. Here's my primary reason - he's old and simple minded, and here's the best example I can give, right out of the Rochester D&C:

""I'm trying to save jobs here," Davis said. "Tariffs will raise the cost of foreign products, but it will never be higher than the cost of the U.S. product. If it goes high, then you buy U.S. All that's doing is balancing the field." "

This is another term for "price controls". Yes, there are tariffs on all sorts of stuff, and sometimes it can be used as a useful tool against dumping products in our markets, but that's not what Davis is saying. He wants higher tariffs on foreign products. You want a car - pay a higher price. You want a shirt - pay a higher price. You want just about anything - pay a higher price. This does nothing but increase inflation, which last time I checked, isn't something we want.

Price controls didn't work for Germany, or the Soviet Union, or the ancient Romans for cryin' out loud.... and they certainly won't work today.

PLEASE get your price!

2006-10-09T10:36:00.000-04:00

OK - I have to admit... now I love the shows, "Flip This House" and "Flip That House". Sure, it seems kindof strange that two networks would have similar shows with only one word differences in their names, but here we are.

So, there's a flip going on on my street. This house is currently for sale. Asking price: $94,900. The flippers bought the house about 3 weeks ago for $60,001. If they get their price, that's a potential profit of $34,899. Not bad! I really hope they get their price. Why? Because it means our house is worth more! Well, maybe not... but the truth is, our house is worth more today than when we bought it. Or at least it should be worth more. God only knows if when we sell it in another 3-5 years if we'll get more than we paid, but all things being equal, we should. And it'd be even easier to get that price if the other houses on our street sell for more. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Fuccillo Hyundai

2006-10-07T21:59:00.000-04:00

I can't stand it anymore - and it's only been two months. Fuccillo Hyundai commercials are insanely bad. Not just bad, but insideous. Part of the problem is that they're on all the time. Frankly, if this guy from Syracuse wants to pump thousands of advertising dollars into the local economy, that's great. I don't mind our region walking away with this guys money - particularly from Central New York, an area not exactly known for economic prosperity (OK..OK... Rochester isn't that much better, but this was Smugtown, afterall... so I'm going with it.) In fact, I've got to guess that the amount of dollars spent on advertising is almost a wash - given the relatively low margin on the sale of a new car. But how many years do we need to see this same crap on TV, again and again?

Let me be perfectly clear.... I will NEVER buy a Hyundai. I don't care if it was third in initial quality behind Porsche and Lexus. And what the heck IS initial quality anyway? Well, here you go:

"IQS measures a broad range of quality problems, heavily weighted toward defects and malfunctions, quality of workmanship, drivability, human factors in engineering (i.e. ease of use) and safety-related problems. Among these categories, the area that accounts for the greatest product improvement since 1998 are defects and malfunctions, down from 61 PP100 to 40 PP100. Further, those that are related to safety show a 44 percent improvement—from 25 PP100 down to only 14."

What does that mean? It means that Hyundai's cars have few problems up front. How many problems 3 or 5 years from now? God only knows. Maybe none. Maybe lots. I'll admit, the initial quality of my Honda Civic is a lot better than my Audi A4. But while I love the Honda... uh... it's a HONDA. I have images of Principal Skinner after the "H" on his Honda was stolen, "That's how they know it's a Honda!"

I drove my dad's Audi TT a few weeks before we turned it back in, and after that the thought crossed my mind that I'd made a horrible mistake with the Honda. It's not nearly as fast as the TT or the A4. It'd doesn't have the same overall solid feel. There was no moonroof option. It's automatic. It also gets 45-50 miles-per-gallon, which is fantastic. But if I make a million dollars, guess what... I'm buying a Porsche. And not because John Holtz ran a million annoying commercials every hour, or because Porsche has the highest initial quality ranking.

Why No IKEA in WNY?

2006-09-26T11:00:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting here at Spot Coffee, enjoying my latte, and reading a NYSTAR grant and my mind starts to wander. I go to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle's website, and read the following story about Walmart opening in Victor, maybe.

So, I've got to ask myself, why another Walmart in the Rochester area? OK - I've supported a new Walmart at Northgate Plaza, mainly because it's such a shitty plaza and desperately needs something. ANYTHING. But then I got to thinking about the economics of WNY, and Rochester in particular. Why, in Victor, around Eastview Mall, where the RICH PEOPLE shop, do they need a Walmart? There's a Target already, and a K-Mart, and a million other stores. So, why does WNY fail to attract other interesting retail?

Here's my specific quandry... why no IKEA here? I mean, we've got a half dozen universities here with probably 30 or 50,000 students. We're almost eqidistant from Buffalo and Syracuse, and much of the Southern Tier. There's plenty of money here, and the region, including all the above, is probably what? 5 million people? So, why are is the only IKEA store in NYC? On LONG ISLAND, no less. And there's another one coming to Red Hook in Brooklyn. Are you telling me that the entire Western New York region couldn't support one of these?

I'm sorry, but even with all the bitching and moaning we hear about Rochester's terrible economy, frankly it could be a LOT worse. Go to Youngstown, Ohio for a visit, and then tell me Rochester is doom and gloom. Rochester is a well-off, smaller metro area with close proximity to other metros who's citizens who drive here to go to an IKEA. Maybe that would make more sense for Northgate Plaza, or even better... Eastview Mall, with easy access to the Thruway. Hell, even downtown would be OK. But why major retail chains still ignore this area, I can't quite figure out.

The Cheesecake Factory recently announced it's comming to Buffalo's Walden Galleria. I checked online to see if it's coming here, and no, it's not. But the question I ask is, why not? Are you telling me the like 5% higher population drove that decision by TCF to locate there? I hate to brag, but Rochester is simply a way better city than Buffalo. We have a broader mix of companies, a friendlier "feel", and a stronger economic outlook. Maybe these big corporations just aren't doing their homework, but it seems like a real missed opportunity to constantly overlook WNY.

And now for something completely different...
The music on the sound system at Spot when I got here was the band It's a Beautiful Day, and their song "White Bird". ( Here's a review and brief history.) I have NEVER heard this song on the radio, or out in public before. I asked the girl behind the counter, and apparently it's XM, and in the morning they play esoteric stuff. She wasn't familiar with the band, but liked it. I gave her the background about California Sound, and the band name and song title... but I really never expected to hear that song in public. Much like going to California Rollin' and hearing Snake River Conspiracy on their CD player... just something you don't expect every day!

Zillow.com

2006-09-24T12:30:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a neat site. It's one of a few property valuation sites on the internet. What's really cool is it uses Microsoft's satellite visualization program (as opposed to Google's googlemaps, or google-earth). I might be wrong (no I'm not) but for the first time, I really like something Microsoft developed. Not that it's more fun to use than Google Earth (because it's not!) but the quality of the images is WAY better. Now, I've seen image quality using JPEG2000 from Kodak that you wouldn't believe, and so far, this is the closest thing I've seen. OK - I haven't really checked to see how they get these images... it might be Pictometry low-level flyover data, rather than satellite data, but it's really really high quality, and from multiple angles. I prefer Google Earth's navigation system, but I would hope Google would update the quality of the close up images - much like the Microsoft system uses.

I also really like Zillow.com. Here's a link to our house: RIGHT HERE. As you can see, nice closeups of the property, from multiple angles, showing much higher resolution than Google Earth/Google Maps. The property valuations also are really accurate - at least for my street - as assessed value and market value are about the same. Granted, we've done a TON of improvements to the house, and there's more on the way (like new windows throughout the house, and new insulation, and MAYBE *if business is good* a new master bathroom) so I would hope our property is worth more than $86,848 assessed value - but that's still more than we paid for it by a couple grand. After watching "Flip That House" about a million times, it's a damn shame we can't expect to recapture all that value. Frankly, we have a wonderful little home, which should be very desirable as a starter home for some other family, assuming we stay on track and move out in another 3-5 years. I'm actually sitting outside on my stoop while I write this and was noticing that the house could also use a new exterior paint job. Maybe if Jim (Julie's dad) really does replace the windows throughout the house, we'll invest in repainting the whole place. I bet it would look fantastic in a color other than "wimpy white," which is what I'd classify it as right now.

Next year I've got all SORTS of projects I'd like to have done - including finishing up the landscaping in the backyard, and maybe a new privacy fence in back? And it'd be nice to have a little patio built out back where we could put some nice outdoor furniture - and maybe the grill - so we could entertain back there. And I still want to replace the basement casement windows with glass block. It's very secure, and way more insulating than what we've got down there right now. Little things include resealing the driveway next year (as a good preventative measure) and repainting the front stoop. The top of the chimney also needs a little work, and the paint up there needs to be scraped off. Some people would hate all this stuff, but frankly, I think it's kindof fun. I think of this house as an investment in my families future - meaning, hopefully we'll have enough into it to have one hell of a nice downpayment on a future home.

Well, that's all for now. The Bills play the Jets in about 20 minutes. Lets go BUFFALO!

FIRE!

2006-09-20T18:49:00.000-04:00

Well, we had some excitement this evening. Julie and I were sitting upstairs and noticed a smokey smell coming from outside. I figured, "Well, it's cool outside, and someone must have lit their fireplace!" Yeah, well, it wasn't to be. No, instead, it was some kids who lit a tree on fire. I was downstairs starting to make dinner when a firetruck comes down the street! Went outside, and directly across the street there's a tree with several squirrel holes and smoke pouring out of them. Needless to say, this was enough excitement to get the whole street to come outside and check out what was going on. In a matter of minutes they had the fire put out and were gone.

I saw the dumb ass kids coming out of the woods shortly after we first noticed the smell. And if our neighbor hadn't been driving by, and noticed it, god only knows if someone else would have called the fire department! I just wish I had my digital camera so I could have taken some pictures to post online. I guess you'll just have to use your imagination.

The Fog of Dave

2006-09-19T21:53:00.000-04:00

As I sit here writing this, I'm kindof in a fog. No, not a nice alcohol induced fog, but rather a strange, unbalanced, dizzy fog. Apparently I have something wrong with my head (um, yeah, there's a nice opening for someone). For the past week I've been walking around in an unsteady haze. It gets better from time to time, but it's making it really hard to concentrate on anything for prolonged periods of time. I'm hoping it's some sort of inner ear infection, and that it'll go away soon. I'm going to my doctor tomorrow - which guarantees it'll be gone tomorrow morning - but I'm going anyway. Hopefully it's just that, and nothing more, but we'll see tomorrow.

Otherwise, things are going pretty darn good. Work is busy but constantly interesting. Submitted another SBIR a few weeks ago thanks to Claire being in the office. And now I'm looking at starting another company with some help in a pseudo medical endeavor. Found a very interesting niche that isn't really being addressed, and I'm hoping there's a business there. Gotta start talking to the right group of potential collaborators to see if they're interested in pursuing this futher. Javelin itself has got a lot on its plate, and I'm still hoping that things get to the point where I can hire at least one full time person and a part-time paid intern.

On the baby front, I can't believe we're less than 3 months away! The hard parts of the room are done, and now it's just a waiting game until the furniture comes in. According to Simon's Baby Furniture, it's getting close. That's good to hear - and it's nice to see we've nearly paid the stuff off. Man, my dad would be like, "What the hell are you doing?! Buying all this new furniture? Are you NUTS?!" But, we at least bought stuff that can transition with our daughter as she gets older. For instance, the crib converts to a toddler bed, which later converts to a full size bed. It's really nice furniture, and I think it's sufficiently "girly" enough so that as she gets older, she won't think it's too "kiddy" or cheap. Let's hope so... then again, dad would add here, "She's bound to hate anything you buy for her... especially as she gets older."

Julie had to work a 16-hour shift last night, and apparently it was OK. But these long hours definitely are taking their toll. I'd love to tell her she can just quit her job! Hopefully some of these big business deals will actually happen and we can consider it. But right now, it sure is nice having health insurance! ("Um, sorry honey, but you'll have to deliver the baby at home, uh, without any painkillers, or doctors. Oh, who needs doctors?!")

That's about it. Guess the only other interesting stuff is that I've finally edited my MySpace page. Yes, yes, I know. MySpace sucks. Or, more generally, MySpace is used by a certain demographic that I am not a member of. But, considering the number of people who use it, I might as well have a minimally updated page which actually drives traffic back to my regular web log. That's where the action is!

OMG - "Black & Tan" is INSENSITIVE!

2006-09-02T19:12:00.000-04:00

I'm just sitting here finishing up a container of Haagen-Dazs "Sticky Toffee Pudding" ice cream, and decided to google it to see if there'd be any reviews. I couldn't find anything, but in the process, discovered a website called 2dips.com which appears to post on current events in the ice cream industry. Well, at the top of the page is the following about one of my favorites from Ben & Jerry's - their Black & Tan:

"I like the look and idea of this ice cream (even if Ben & Jerry's had to apologize for the name). I also like the execution, from the Black & Tan cow, to the cream stout "head," to the good looking scoops. It's a good taste. Not great, but still pretty good. It's not really a typical Ben & Jerry's flavor to me because there's no chunks of anything inside. I like the mix overall, but I wouldn't eat a lot of it; it works for what it is."

So, I appreciate this guys review - it's the "apologize for the name" part that I couldn't understand. Until I read this article. What the hell? Here's a snipit from the article, Black and Tan was "the nickname of a notoriously violent British militia that operated during Ireland’s war of independence." The article adds, "The Black and Tans, so-called because of their two-tone uniforms, were recruited in the early 1920s to bolster the ranks of the police force in Ireland as anti-British sentiment grew. They quickly gained a reputation for brutality and mention of the militia still arouses strong feelings in Ireland."

Ok, Ireland? Listen up. Get a fucking grip. This is god damned ice cream, and you KNOW what it's in reference too. BEER. Not some militia of British thugs from the 1920s for cryin out loud. The fact that the MENTION of the militia still "arouses strong feelings in Ireland" is proof enough that Ireland must not have enough going on. I mean, they ought to just start committing mass suicides right now. The fact that this ice cream is so insensitive is reason enough to kill yourself. Sure, sure... Ireland is apparently now one of the richest countries in the world. But instead of building mansions, buying expensive cars and LCD TVs and the like, the Irish spend their time stewing about some thugs from an era that most participants of are dead. Here's the kicker from that article, I guess written by bored Irish people:

"“I can’t believe that Ben & Jerry’s would be so insensitive to call an ice cream such a name and to launch it as a celebration of Irishness ... it’s an insult!” wrote one blogger on www.junkfoodblog.com. “I hope they don’t try to launch it here in Ireland or I imagine they’ll lose a lot of their fans.”"

Yes - fans of ice cream will be so upset about a flavor that clearly shows beer on the label, that they might get confused and think it's about British thugs. Especially an ice cream that isn't sold in Ireland. Damn... how insensitive! Now if they had only made "Ben & Jerry's Waffle-SS" or perhaps, "Ben & Jerry's Luftwaffe"? I mean, granted, "luftwaffe" just means "air force" and could just as easily mean British Luftwaffe, American Luftwaffe, and the like... but I mean, come on... wouldn't that be a great ice cream flavor? Or maybe "Ben & Jerry's Little German Chocolate Swastikas"?

Flip This House!

2006-08-26T17:09:00.000-04:00

I was just watching Flip This House - a TV show on TLC. People buy houses that need massive renovations and then turn around and sell them for $100,000-150,000 more than they paid (give or take). So, I was just watching this one house makeover. They paid like $550,000 for this small shithole (I don't know what city it was in... i only caught the end) and they went ahead and listed it for $749,000. This house was like 2000 feet, with a tiny yard, and really nothing special.

I'm thinking, "$749,000 is a lot of money. I wonder what I could buy in Rochester for $749,000?"

Well, here's an example. This house is listed at $750,000:

It is 7000 square feet on over 4 acres of land. 4 bedrooms, 4 full baths. 3.5 car garage. This is a fucking mansion. Or, I can buy a tiny shithole for $550,000, OR EVEN BETTER buy a FORMER total shit hole for $749,000. OK - I appreciate wanting to live in nifty areas, but give me a break. Give me the mansion over the shithole EVERY TIME.

Just for shits and giggles, here's another example. It's in Webster, right on the water. 3600 square feet. 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3 car garage, and brand spanking new:

Again, PLEASE let me buy a $750,000 mansion here in town than a tiny, 2000 (or smaller) square foot piece of SHIT. Literally, we're talking SHIT here. I don't fucking care if it's god damn downtown Las Vegas. I don't care if it's some fake-ass Laguna Beach "paradise". Other major metros who suck their own dicks cause they're soooooooo cool? Fuck you.

Baby room!

2006-08-19T21:18:00.000-04:00

Well, the painting is done, and Julie and Mark put up the border today... and it looks GREAT! Here's some pictures of the room - as you'll see, there's still a LOT to do. Tomorrow I'll hopefully take down the tape from around all the moldings, and generally give the place a good cleaning. Then on Tuesday we're supposed to have the floors refinished. And I might even get the new blinds and window sconces up tomorrow. I'm also attaching below a picture of the little music mobile we got which matches the bedding - which matches everything else!

And, on a totally different topic, here's my stereo system - in all it's glory! From top to bottom - Dynaco FM-3 Tuner, Dynaco Stereo-70 Amplifer, Dynaco PAS-2 Preamplifier, and a NAD CD player. The top 3 units are all at least 40 years old and utilize the warm, analog sound of vacuum tubes. Don't ask me which tubes are in there, cause I don't know off-hand, and would either have to open up the cases, or find my receipts from when everything was rebuilt. Actually, I JUST got the PAS-2 preamp. My old one was DEAD - and not worth repairing, considering I bought the new one for a mere $150, which is a great price. I love the sound now of this system - now if I only had a great AM tuner, and maybe a record player... I might take the one from my mom's house if she doesn't care - but I'm also out of space... so I can't do it just yet. Oh yeah, and the dark image is the rack without the flash... hopefully you can kindof see the tubes glowing - especially in the amp. Ideas for a good AM only tuner would be appreciated.... Scott Fybush - there must be a tube HD AM tuner out there somewhere... right?

New Post

2006-08-08T20:04:00.000-04:00

Wow - I've been delinquent in my blog posting! So, what's new and exciting? Well, this past weekend we started the process of converting our extra bedroom into the nursery. So far, we've taken out all the furniture, and relocated what we could into the office - essentially making it the spare bedroom. Actually, it looks pretty good! We took out my office desk and tossed it (it was subsequently picked up by folks today... along with the dresser we tossed). We moved the surviving bedroom furniture into the room and then have started by painting the ceiling. This weekend, we paint the walls in two sections and measure out where room border is going to go.

Last weekend we also went to Simon's Baby Furniture and Juile's mom got us the crib, matress, and bedding. I THINK she also bought us the double wide dresser... but I can't recall exactly. Then we added to that some odds and ends and a very nice glider, or rocking chair. It's got a nice high back, and eventually will make a really nice piece of furniture in our living room. Then, following that, I think we paint the trim around the ceiling, and that should finish the room. I'll take some digital pictures and post them here - maybe a before and after.

Oh, we also got some very nice landscaping done over the past couple weeks. In fact, I'm writing this from the comfort of my newly re-designed backyard. Well, maybe that's a stretch... but it does look awfully nice. A very large branch from a big black walnut tree in the backyard broke off last week and of course landed right on top of the new landscaping... but after a couple hours of cutting, it's been removed and the plants seem to be no worse off for wear. Had a very nice time sitting back here with Tim Corio - smoked a cigar, drank some scotch - and of course attacked some very tough political issues. I miss having really good political conversations! Tim and I had just left the 50th wedding anniversary party of some mutual friends, and afterwards decided we needed booze. Afterward, we went to Dinosaur Barbecue for a bite to eat. Going to Dinosaur at 9:30pm on a Sunday night is GREAT! We got a parking spot on the Court Street Bridge practically in front of the door, sat right down, and had our food in no time. I might have to do that again!

It's a.....

2006-07-19T16:18:00.000-04:00

Just got back from the latest ultrasound, and I'm proud to announce Julie and I are going to be the proud parents of a little GIRL! More to come... cheers'

Web design, anyone?

2006-07-16T15:01:00.000-04:00

I need a website. I registered a URL a while back, www.javelin-group.com, and it's just a placeholder at the moment. However, I want something that expresses what Javelin is about - that basically, we work to build relationships for our clients that result in new sources of revenue. Of course there's simple stuff to include - past clients, links to various resources, contact information, yadda yadda yadda... But I also want it to LOOK good, and have some things built into it that create a reason to regularly visit the site. Concurrently to this, I want to redo the website for the International Photonics Commercialization Alliance which again, was created by me on the cheap, er, free. There's several more tools to add to the site which can drive revenues back into the organization and decrease its reliance on government funding as well as continuing to offer membership for free.

So, I need a web designer who's cheap. I think I might have one.... just need to talk to him again and see if he's still available to do it. But I'm also up to suggestions if you know anyone who might be able to pull something together on a fairly tight budget. Email me or post a comment if you have suggstions.

Best Cigar.... Ever

2006-07-11T20:04:00.000-04:00

No, not really, but as I'm sitting here enjoying a pre-embargo cuban, I've come to realize that I can't smoke anything marginal anymore. Why bother? I went to Cisso a few weeks ago with the husband of my wife's best friend (say that 10 times fast). What a great place! For the price, I can't imagine anything with a better value than Cisso - who makes all the cigars onsite - right on Lake Ave near Kodak. But while I really enjoyed a couple of the cigars, one of them really wasn't my cup-o-tea. It was something Cisso affectionately called an "after dinner cigar," meaning it was laden with sweet flavors. Um, no thanks. Won't do that again! Now part of the problem was the night I was smoking these it was particularly windy outside, sitting on Marty's porch. If it had been calmer, I'm sure it would have been a better smoke. But they all burned un-evenly, and got a bit of a nasty flavor too early in the course of smoking the things. Still, I'll go back - no doubt - and probably smoke there. They serve beer and wine, so that in combination with the cigars is a great combo.

There - I just wasted my time writing the above paragraph when I should be writing stuff for work... or better yet, watching the MLB All-Star game (albeit, not in the house with a lit cigar.)

Oh, and just for shits and giggles - check out the "hidden" website of Andrew Welch (creator of Ambrosia Software) on his visits to the Arturo Fuente plant.... he moved the site to here - http://www.vitolas.net/. AMAZING pictures, and apparently Andrew had too much time on his hands?

Catching up

2006-07-05T22:25:00.000-04:00

Went back to Corky's the other night with Julie - BIG improvement. Apparently they've either fired the lousy staff, or else they were just out back smoking pot. We each had hard serve ice cream - so that's simpler than trying to get the soft serve. And we also decided it was a good idea to go with the "kiddy" size. As we were there, another woman ordered a medium of the mint ting-a-ling. That's apparently the favorite of everyone else too, as in addition to this woman, i think her husband got it, Julie got it, and another guy ordered it as we were eating our ice cream. I decided to try the creme brulee which was really quite good. Anyway, the moral of the story here is Corky's redeamed themselves, and I'll go back. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not going back to Coldstone, but at least my choices are back up by one!

There were some other things I wanted to mention too, but now I can't think of them. It might have been baseball related (went to the Red Wings game tonight. Wings won the game. Good time had by all - except the losers). It might have been work related, or something else. Right now though, it's time for a glass of scotch to finish off the night. Cheers.

Happy 4th

2006-07-02T10:05:00.000-04:00

Man, what a busy weekend it's been - and it's only Sunday morning! Today is Steve Brown's wedding - so that'll be how I spend most of my afternoon. But Friday night we went out to dinner with some of Julie's friends, and I ended up going to Cisso for cigars with Marty McCarthy - the husband of one of Julie's best friends. Sat out on his deck and smoked, chatted, generally had a good time. Saturday night was also spent at their house - did a cookout, and played euchre. Monday the 3rd we'll be at Conesus Lake for what should be the last hurrah at Don's parents' lake house (currently listed for sale). Damn, it's $245,000 - way too much for me today, and it's kindof a hole, but it's still a great spot. Someday...

The 4th is also really busy, going to Tim and Darlene's for their annual 4th of July party, which is always a bunch of fun, with lots of great food. I also want to try and set aside some time to catch Yankee Doodle Dandy on TV. It's a GREAT movie, and worth watching. Done in 1942 and starring James Cagney, he's an AMAZING performer, acting out the life of George M. Cohan, renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer and singer. Cagney makes you realize how much talent actors used to have - when they were more than just a name and face. This guy (much like other greats, like the Marx Brothers) could do it all. If you get a chance - watch this movie.

Had a wig for his wig and a brain for a heart

2006-06-28T21:05:00.000-04:00

There's a great video on YouTube.com right HERE that you've got to check out. Very funny stuff!

So, what's new and exciting?

Baby stuff
Baby's next ultrasound is right around the corner! There seem to be a lot of people who're pregnant these days. Or maybe I'm just noticing it more. One thing I was asked today by one of the folks I work with at Infotonics was, "Are you going to find out what it is?". She is also pregnant, and while she'd like to know, her husband wants it to be a surprise. Julie and I are going to find out at that next ultrasound. It'll make it way more fun preparing the nursery for our little arrival! But Julie also made an interesting comment about someone she knows being really pissed off that we weren't taking the "surprise" route. In short, this person's take was, "Well, what fun is it if you already know?!" We're basically of the opinion that it's the actual BABY that's the exciting part. Not some weird ritual of guessing whether you're going to have a boy or a girl. Are we gambling on this or something? Setting up a pool with co-workers on boy or girl, weight, length, and whatever else there might be?

Anyway, I still haven't posted the pics from the first ultrasound, and by the time I get a chance, we'll probably have the second ones done!

Work stuff
Lots of interesting stuff going on at work, and it looks like little Javelin will be growing. I've been pushing to pick up an expanded contract with ITC, and it looks like it's going to happen. In that case, I'll probably need another person to join me and Claire in this little adventure. I just hope I can find someone who's happy to work for money, and not really REALLY needing health insurance. I just got a packet from Paychex about the cost of health insurance, and damn is it expensive! Now, if we went with Preffered Care, it's not terrible, but the offerings from the Blues are maybe 25-30% higher in monthly premiums! The other thing I may do is start offering a 401(k) plan, but that's $1500 up front to set up and frankly, I think I'd be happier WITH the $1500.

Misc. stuff
It's been exciting times from Kansas City Royals fans! We're on a roll - winning 8 of the last 10 games. They're going to blow it tonight in Cinncinnatti, but considering how dreadful their away record is, I'm just happy they won yesterday's game. They've improved their record to 25-50 (though, after tonight, 25-51) which is bad, but it's better than it was looking a month ago.

Other misc. stuff? Well, the trees finally came down in the backyard. Holy smokes, what a difference! There's actually LIGHT in the back now. There's a couple more trees that probably should have been taken down too, but maybe that'll be for next year. Next up - we get some new landscaping to give us some privacy in the backyard. I'd love to fence off the whole thing with a natural fence - but considering we're probably only going to be in this house another 3 years, it's not worth it. The only big ticket items left to do as far as I'm concerned are the glass block windows in the basement. That, and installing my new kitchen sink fixtures, and one new ceiling fan for the living room.

Well, that's it for now. I'm sitting outside and the mosquitoes are really starting to bug me. A nice glass of scotch will finish off this night!

Cold Stone Creamery

2006-06-18T19:20:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to say a fast word about Cold Stone Creamery. I've never been to one of these before, and as Julie and I drove back from seeing her dad in Conesus, we decided it was a perfect day for icecream. We'd been driving around with the top down in 90 degree weather, so I think we were both ready for some ice cream. I had some reservations about going to Cold Stone. The big one, however, was Julie said how unimpressed she was with one of them out west. We decided to go there anyway, just for something different, and let me tell you, it was amazing! I got this one mix called Cookie Doughn't You Want Some - or something like that - with vanilla ice cream, big chunks of cookie dough, chocolate chips, chocolate sauce and some caramel sauce. Wow. Really tasty stuff. Unfortunately, I bought the "medium" size, and ended up tossing about a third of it. Next time I'll be sure to get the small.

After a major disappointment at Corky's Cravings Parlor, this is definately a good one to add to my list of "to-do's" over the rest of the summer. For some reason, Corky's was staffed the other night by a bunch of drug addicts. Either that, or just idiots. They didn't know how to use the soft serve machine, and it was at least 3 to 5 minutes to process each order. With the group of us comprising about 7 people, that meant some folks were finishing when others were just getting their ice cream. Really pathetic for a place that those of us who lived in the Overdale/Luzerne Street area really came to enjoy. I'll probably give them another shot later in the summer, once they've had some time to get their act together. But in the mean time, I'll be sure to enjoy Cold Stone Creamery again!

UPDATE: Gargoyles live!

2006-06-16T16:23:00.000-04:00

Or, in theory they do. No, not like the gargoyles of the TV series - voiced by our favorite Star Trek actors, but the ones from the Elwood Builidng which was razed in the 60s.

I asked local historian and Rochester Numismatic Association member Gerry Muhl if he was familar with the Elwood Building, and more specifically, the gargoyles that sat atop it. Well, lo and behold, not only did he know about them, he'd even SEEN them on display! Apparently, the City took ownership of them following the razing of the building and did indeed put them into storage. They were later put on display, though I don't recall where, and then put back into storage. Gerry believes that they now are boxed away either near City Hall or at a storage facility on Andrews Street near the Rochester Fire Department's main building.

So, I'm getting closer to solving the mystery (albeit, apparently, not too difficult of one to solve it seems.) Gerry also suggested that I contact Ruth Rosenberg-Naparsteck to see if she's familiar with them and knows where they are. I may email her tonight to try and figure out what happened to them. Of course, the next question is: what to do about it? According to Gerry, the gargoyles are actually tin, which says to me after all this time, brittle. But maybe there's a way to still display one somehow? Not like I wanted, on top of my garage, but maybe on permanent display somewhere? I mean, are you telling me, there isn't a single building in say, all of downtown Rochester, that doesn't have space in their lobby for a permanent display of a historical item such as one of these gargoyles? Of course, I'd feel sorry for the other 14 or so that would stay locked up in storage crates somewhere, but if they weren't going to fall apart, I wonder if they could be added to a new building? I'd even be willing to say if I win the MegaMillions, I'll be sure to build something downtown that incorporates the rest of the gargoyles!

So, maybe the next step in my quest is to get some actual, up close pictures of the gargoyles? That'd be pretty cool - failing walking off with one! (LOL)

Wine and Friends

2006-06-06T22:11:00.000-04:00

I was browsing on WineBid.com tonight looking at some great california cabs when it occurred to me that I have no one to enjoy wine with. By that, I don't mean someone who will just drink wine, but someone who will really appreciate it. Of course, this is in the post-Henry era. We both were really into wine - and now I'm kindof screwed. And with Julie not drinking with the pregnancy, that means I can't even justify opening a great bottle, cause I'd have to drink it all myself - and that's no fun. Fortunately, I really like scotch too - and can drink a little of it at a time - and there're a few of my friends who are big scotch people. But no wine people!

Henry bought a bunch of wines a couple days before he died, and while we'll drink them, and enjoy them, it won't be the same. I could probably call family friend Don Yungkurth - a BIG wine fan - and I may just have to do that! I hope he won't mind drinking really good burgundies and zins. So, maybe I need to find a couple new friends who can just be my "wine friends"??

Gargoyles

2006-06-04T18:04:00.000-04:00

Anyone who knew Henry knew that he was into some weird shit. For example, for some reason he had this desire to place a large gargoyle on the roof of the garage. Specifically, from Design Toscano, he was particularly interested in purchasing Apex - the Winged Dragon". In fact, so enamored with Apex, he suggested he buy one for Julie and me! Needless to say, when I showed Julie the Apex - the Winged Dragon her first reaction was, "What the hell?!" Followed by something like, "Can't he just give us the money? Or maybe buy something we could actually use?" Well, sorry, but no. That wasn't his way! How many winter jackets did he buy me that I didn't need? How many winter jackets did he buy that HE didn't need?!

Well, I kindof dig the Apex gargoyle. It's kindof cool, and I wouldn't mind having one perched on the roof of my garage! (Though, Julie would probably kill me - and shoot the dragon.) And what got me to thinking about this had absolutely nothing to do with anything. I'm considering downtown office space. I like Highfalls, and I like the Highfalls building, however we never heard from them when we basically said we'd do it - so that kindof turned me off. I also REALLY like the idea of having a balcony. This is due in large part to my love of "Boston Legal". If I'm going to put in long hours, and run a business, I want a balcony I can sit on and occasionally smoke a cigar and drink a nice glass of scotch. Well, here's the problem with living in Rochester - no downtown buildings have balconies. Or, at least, I can't seem to find one. The closest thing is the Powers Builidng tower. There's balconies on a couple of the levels, and I can imagine myself sitting out there! (Oh, the other one is on top of Kodak tower, but the smoke from a burning cigar probably would interfere with the falcons flying around).

Again, this has nothing to do with gargoyles! Well, here's how we come to them. I was looking for pictures of the Powers building tower and came upon pictures of the Elwood Building. This building was torn down in 1967 in the name of progress. What drew my interest were the large gargoyles that sat atop this builidng. According to the Monroe County Library's history site, "there were originally 16 gargoyles. However, one was removed in 1962 for fear that is was going to break free and fall to the street below."

When they tore down the building, the site states that "the gargoyles, however, were taken down and put into storage." So, what happened to these lovely fellows? I'm sure there are some local historians out there that know, and I know a few of them, so next time I run into them, I'll ask. It's interesting that they saved them at all, considering how bad "urban renewal" was for downtown. So much was lost, and tossing the gargoyles wouldn't have been any less crazy than telling bird collectors (those who collect stuffed birds) that they'd better go south and shoot Ivory Billed Woodpeckers while they still can - before they go on the endanged list! (Yes, this actually did happen, albeit prior to 1967. What better way to save a species than to SHOOT it.)

So, my new mission is to find these gargoyles and put one on my roof. Maybe not the most meaningful mission in the world, but I'm SURE Julie would just LOVE one of these on our roof.

Kansas City Royals Beat the Yankees?!

2006-05-27T15:34:00.000-04:00

I am an on-again, off-again KC Royals fan. Over the past several years they've gone from bad to worse to good to bad, to more bad, to really bad and now really REALLY bad. We're talking 11 wins and 35 losses bad. Of course, before last night, they were 10 and 35 - having just beaten the NEW YORK YANKEES last night. WTF? We lose to everyone else under the sun - except the Indians - and now they have the audacity to beat the Yankees? And this after they blew a 6 run lead against Detroit a couple nights ago to lose in the 9th inning - something we expect to see as KC fans.What's next, beat the Mets in interleague play? What does Buddy Bell think he's doing? Now those of us totally resigned to a crappy crappy year have been given hope, of sorts.

OK - they won ONE game, not exactly a huge accomplishment. But then again, if the can beat the Yankees, why can't they beat some other quality teams? I guess I shouldn't complain, KC starter Scott Elarton got is first win (now a whopping 1-5 with a 4.76 ERA) so that's positive. And it was nice to see that it was Jason Giambi blowing it for the Yankees. (I wonder if his post-game interview was laced with inuendo about steroiods?)

Now we've got a shot at an actual WIN STREAK this year. The best they've done is a three-game streak against the Indians, which again, gave fans a slight bit of hope, but this recent 14 game losing streak really was amazingly bad. I'll be watching the YES network later today, cause, well, I'm just a glutton for punishment.

UPDATE: KC lost 15 to 4 to the Yankees today. Guess there's no streak. Oh well!

Dad & Baby

2006-05-23T09:59:00.000-04:00

Well, as nearly everyone who knows me or my family knows, my dad passed away on May 9th. I don't know if I'm ready yet to post some sort of big memorial piece here, but I might at some point. It's been great how supportive everyone's been, however. For those who are interested, yes, I'm keeping Javelin going. We recently changed the name to The Javelin Group, Inc., and I'm adding Claire Kenney part time on June 5th, which will be a great help to me. And in the middle of June we might be adding one other person. That'll bring Javelin up to three. Ideally, we'll have enough work coming in here that we can even bring some others on.

On a VERY happy note, Julie and I are having a BABY!!! Yes, we did it! Our tentative due date is December 13th, but that's probably going to change. When I get a chance, I'll want to scan the ultrasound pics and post em' up here. It was AMAZING to see the baby for real. That just totally blew me away. We told both families and now I'm at liberty to spread the news around, so there it is!

Otherwise, just keeping busy and will post a lot more stuff up here in the not-too-distant future. Check back!

What a great line!

2006-04-23T11:01:00.000-04:00

I have to post this quote from today's (4/23/06) issue of the New York Times. It's from a story entitled, "To Hire Sharp Employees, Recruit in Sharp Ways." Essentially, it's a story about how the best employees already have jobs - jobs they probably also like. So, there's a great line in here which made me laugh, cause it's so opposed to the way Rochester works. John J. Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University (ok, not exactly Harvard or Standford, but let's ignore that credential for a moment, shall we?) - a critic of traditional hiring practices states, "It's amazing that so many companies still use job fairs to recuit talent. Who goes to job fairs? People without jobs! All you get are worthless resumes and lots of germs. Recruiting has to be a clever, fast-moving business discipline, not a passive, paper-pushing bureaucracy."

The job-fair is the answer to all our problems in Rochester - or so the "thought leaders" believe. Job fairs and business planning contests are the most innovative ways to solve our problems, so they'll say. That, and spending lots and lots of money with these self-proclaimed thought leaders on their pet projects which do nothing more than pay for their travel expenses and make them feel like a saviour-in-out-midsts. Of course, ask them five-years from now for a report on all their successes, and you'll get nothing but spin, and the real outcomes will be slight-to-immeasurable.

Of course, in the same story, the director of talen acquisition for Quicken Loans (one of the fastest growing companies in the US) states, "We're after certain kinds of people, not people from a certain business.... We can teach people about finance. We can't teach passion, urgency and a willingness to go the extra mile." Don't tell that to another Rochester-institution that has based it's entire marketing strategy on the "We teach... passion" campaign!

DC Pics

2006-03-24T21:16:00.000-05:00

OK! FINALLY I can post some pics... here's on the roof of our hotel:

Here's the little church across the street from the hotel (the President was there on Sunday morning for services... I would have actually have gone to church if I knew!)

And here's a shot from the FDR memorial...

More shots of the monuments at night coming...

Blogger

2006-03-19T10:57:00.000-05:00

You know, you'd think it wouldn't be rocket science from Blogger to just work. I mean - all I want to do is post text and the occasional picture. Well, I'm sitting here attempting to upload some images from our recent trip to Washington, DC. I wrote a whole section and then attempted to upload the images. It didn't work. Each time, the screen went white after doing the spinning upload thingy. So, I thought, "I'll try using Firefox rather than Safari... maybe that'll make a difference." Nope. Still can't post images. I think I'm going to just say fuck it and try to move to a different blogging program. If Google can't get something as simple as image upload to work on a regular basis, then we should all be worried (but ESPECIALLY all those people out there owning Google shares at $300+ each.)

The Simpsons (for real!)

2006-03-04T15:11:00.000-05:00

As many of you know... I am a huge Simpson's fan. In fact, I probably know more about The Simpson's that I should... having seen every episode - multiple times - and having an uncanny ability to speak along with the lines as various episodes play. I am also a pseudo news junkie... albeit not as big as these guys. I actually seed all sorts of articles on Newsvine - thanks to Brendan who got me into the beta. It's live and open to the public now.

Well, anyway, checking Newsvine today, got me this link. It's The Simpson's opening with real people! VERY well done!

Sick AGAIN

2006-02-27T20:52:00.000-05:00

Well, I don't know what the heck is going on, but I am sick again. This time, it's gotta be the flu. Fever, aching, sneezing, congestion... all that good stuff. In fact, I felt so bad this morning, I had to stay home from work today. I HATE doing that - especially when it's YOUR business... and if you're not there, no one else will pick up the slack. To add to all that, mom and dad are in Tucson, and I wasn't able to get to their place tonight to feed the kitties. Fortunately, Jason was able to stop over there and feed them. I just hope that tomorrow morning I feel great - so I can get to work.

Aren't Communications Great?

2006-02-18T11:03:00.000-05:00

So, it's just before 11am (eastern time) in Rochester, NY and I get a call from Brendan in Seattle. He's heading up to take the ferry from Anacortes to Orcas Island - presumably to do some camping. He's calling me to get the ferry schedule from the Washington State Department of Transportation website. Of course, I have no problem finding what we're looking for, and I let him know that the weekday schedule is different from the weekend schedule, and that they can stop speeding to catch the 8:30 ferry... cause the next one they want isn't until 10:00am.

In reflecting on these events, it's really amazing how far communications have come. That a person in Seattle can phone a person in Rochester - with no long distance charges - and that the person in Rochester can tell him the ferry schedule in Washington State. Now, with the right technology, Brendan could have found this info himself - with a blackberry, or laptop hooked up to a cell phone, or whatever - but it's still interesting. Fifty years ago - hell, TWENTY years ago - none of this would have been possible. He could still have called me, but rudimentary cell phone plans would have probably charged him $20 or more just to make the phone call. Then, I'd probably need to go looking through stacks of papers to find the schedule - assuming I have one - and then hope that it's not out of date!

Just an interesting observation. Up next? Flour City Tavern Tour 2006!!! Just gotta sit down with George and finalize our route. This year's going to start on Monroe Avenue, it appears, probably at Monty's Krown or Jerremiah's Tavern. Jerremiah's would be good for beer and food to start... and then go to the Krown. From there, it's a LONG walk to anywhere... except Enright's... and unless they miraculously add 5 or 8 new taps with excellent beers on them, that'll be a pass. The old Tom Thumb restaurant is good if you're looking to get drinking at 8am, but beyond that it's not really up to tavern-tour expectations.

Once the route is down, then come the t-shirts. In fact, this weekend I'll probably try and pull together the graphics so it's ready to go. Then it'll only be like $10-12 per shirt.

Cheers'

The sickness!

2006-02-10T19:41:00.000-05:00

Oh me' miserum!

Actually, today I'm feeling much better. The past three days have been a pain in the ass, to say the least. Last night, however, was by far the worst. While I did enjoy a good drug induced sleep - I also spent most of the evening huddled on the sofa in my livingroom shivering with fever. Today is better, but I'm also taking a hell of a lot of cold medicine which is keeping me mostly "normal." Still have a nasty cough, congestion, watery eyes, and a general feeling of malaise, but it's not terrible. The objective is to get healthy enough to do two things tomorrow that I've been looking forward to - smoking a cigar at Havana Moes, and going to the Knighthawks game. Why am I looking forward to this? Well, Julie also happens to be in Arizona this weekend - lucky to be away from my sickness! So, I was planning on doing things that she wouldn't normally like me to do (other than the lacrosse, which is good... it's those cigars that aren't viewed too highly.)

I was also planning on eating smoked chubs and cooking a big pot o' tripe - two other things Julie can't stand - but I don't think I could stomach it either right now. Hopefully one more night of sitting on my ass, watching TV, and relaxing will get me back to normal.

Wedding pictures posted!

2006-01-31T21:53:00.000-05:00

Well, it's only been three months, but the wedding pictures are FINALLY posted. Go to www.pictage.com, register online, and look up "Gottfried" in the find an event section. There'll you find a few hundred photos from the wedding! Lots of good ones... some not so good! Check em' out for yourself!

Dave's New Car Redux

2006-01-24T15:56:00.000-05:00

Well, looks like I'm not only days away from the new car coming! Talked to the dealership today and they're sending it over now. I still gotta make up my mind on the various options I want - but I think I know what I want. Basically, I want to add fog lights and a subwoofer sound system. I'd LOVE to have a moonroof too, but it's not an option on this model. Which is strange, considering it's a four-door... and they offer it on other models. But, alas, at this time, there's no moonroof option. Perhaps at some point I can have a hole cut to make one... but not now! It also comes with a navigation system which is really cool. No more getting lost!

The best part is - no more Audi issues. The latest round was the fuel pump died. How is this possible? Why did it die AFTER I went in for my 60,000 mile service? Of course, I'm turning in my car with 5000 extra miles on it - and they'll probably screw me with damage charges. It would just round out the experience of dealing with Audi, which has been terrible. All Audi needed to do to keep me happy was pick up a lease payment once. But they didn't. So I'll never buy another Audi again. They actually called me the other day to discuss my Audi experience... but it was a voicemail message. So, it's unlikely that I'll call them back. What could they possibly do to make me happy now? And why would THEY care? I've already purchased the next car... and it's not an Audi. Oh well.

This will also make Julie very happy on several accounts. First, the car is not leased but purchased. So I actually get to own something! Second, it's automatic, so she can drive it! Third, it's not an Audi, so hopefully it won't have all the technological problems. Every time I drive her around, that damn front turn signal goes dead and the warning light goes off! She then tells me what a POS the car is! (I have to agree - this car shouldn't have this many problems for the price!!!!)

So, hopefully before the week's end, I'll have tons of pictures of the new car. Yay!

Buffalo - The Real Deal

2006-01-22T09:51:00.000-05:00

One of my hobbies is reading The Buffalo News. While it seems every Western New Yorker loves to blast his or her town's local newspaper, really, The Buffalo News ain't half bad. After sitting here drinking my Sunday morning coffee, and reading the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle , and feeling rather unfulfilled about it, you come to realize the Buffalo News in comparison is a pretty good paper - even if I'm too lazy to go to Wegmans and buy an actual copy of it, and instead opt for the online addition.

Anyway, there's a great commentary in today's edition by Donn Esmonde: A few words say it all about Buffalo. Apparently, he held his own little slogan contest to see what readers could come up with for Buffalo. The winner? Buffalo - The Real Deal. Quote, "It's tough-minded, to the point, matter-of-fact. It says this is an authentic place . . . We are what we are, and proud of it. It's smash-mouth football. Chicken wings at the corner tavern. Beers and kielbasa. It's not glitz and glamour, but the authentic America that has been lost in so many places." I have to admit, I really like it too. It also capitalizes on the nation's latest infatuation with poker! Naysayers undoubtedly will complain that the slogan should be negative - pointing to Buffalo's need for a state board to manage it's finances - but those assholes don't get it. Comming up with a city slogan should identify something POSITIVE. EVERY community has bad stuff.... but how can you set your city apart, even with something as insignificant as a slogan?

I think "Buffalo - The Real Deal" is about a BILLION TIMES BETTER than "Rochester - Made for Living". Notice the difference between these two three-word slogans? One kindof hits you - makes you wonder about what might be there, and possibly makes you want to visit. The other conjures up images of schools, suburbs, and soccer moms. Um, that's not a place I need or want to visit. Rochester has so much more going for it, and to have spent thousands comming up with "Made for Living" is an embarrassment. Donn's effort shows how community involvement can usually result in better outcomes than the efforts of our city "thought leaders." Oh yeah, and what did this contest cost Donn? A $100 restaurant gift certificate.

Monroe County State of the County

2006-01-18T19:24:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here listening to Maggie Brooks give her "State of the County" address... so far, sounds pretty good. I like how she started off with economic development. Under her term so far, I would descrive her committment to economic development as, "lackluster," at best. Frankly, you cannot have a successful economic development effort without a (ugh - wait - need to pause - she just honored Gabe and Gene Dalmath for helping the zoo... ugh...)

Anyway, as I was saying, you can't have a economic development effort without a full time director of economic development. And, while she isn't hiring that person, at least she's discussing economic development as a high priority. I think that Terry Slaybaugh is great - but he cannot be all things in this administration, and Maggie needs to bring in a dedicated economic development director. Her idea of the entrepreneurial institute is a good one - and, I like the folks who are going to run it. (Won't mention who that is yet, until it's officially annonunced).

Now she's talking about MCH. "What to do about MCH," is the topic! LOL - they must seriously consider the outright sale of the hospital to an outside company. That's what she says. And at the very least, outsource the administration and staffing. Rob - what do you think? She says it's "an important community asset".... you agree? The time for debate is over - and stresses out the families and healthcare staff. She's appointing a permanent finanical review board to have a fiscally sustainable hospital. Her pledge: "MCH will not be closed, sold, or privatized.... end of discussion, end of debate." Cool beans. (Again, Rob, your thoughts?! LOL)

Long term financial condition of the County.... ongoing fiscal challenges..... last two years: we've been able to keep MC deficit free. The 2006 budget will do so as well. She's proud of all this (as she should be... it's very tough to do). OK... side note.. Jean is sitting in the audience eating something... STOP CHEWING! HAHAHAHAHAHHA.

Well, apparently 2007, 2008 and beyond are a budget gap of $102 million. Yay! We must address this, this year - while we still can.

OK... now she's mentioning that we need to keep the services we have... don't start throwing old people into the streets... wages for County workers is flat... health care coverage is still good, and saved taxpayers money on a continuing basis.... look at vacancies to see if they're necessary jobs.... new contracts are in place with the majority of the unions with about 2% increases in wages - way beneith most other counties.... lots of other savings... but one area that needs scrutiny - high caseloads and welfare - responsible for a lot of the deficit. County is responsible for all this, yes, and should do a better job at administering the welfare programs. Onondaga County is doing it better than we are - and saving money.

UGH... ok... gotta stop typing this stuff. Basically, good speach, and given well. Didn't hear any boos from the Democrats in the audience, and John Richardson looks great sitting there in the audience - undoubtedly wishing he were doing what I am - watching this on TV and drinking wine!

The Today Show

2006-01-17T19:07:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: We were FINALLY on the show! Yay! We had about 15 seconds of "fame"!

For those who may not have caught it, Julie and I (though, Julie got quotes and a picture printed) were in the D&C last Monday. You can find that story HERE.

Well, apparently, The Today Show saw the story on the AP, and thought it would be fun to do a piece on this story. So, this past Friday afternoon our living room was turned into a mini recording studio! There were lights, cameras, and just a little bit of action. They spent about two and a half hours - interviewing us, shooting us making cookies, looking through photos, and walking through the woods outside our home.

According the the producer who did the interview with us, the spot will run this Thursday at 8:10am on Today. So, for those of you with TiVo... be sure to set it! I'd LOVE to post a link to the video, assuming someone saves it for me. I also should get some good screen captures from Scott Fybush who'll be sure to save a copy. Now we'll have to wait until Tuesday to find out if they might fly us down to actually be on the show LIVE... but that would just be icing on the cake. Right now we're happy to be on a national television show. I'll post more when I've got stuff to show!

Rochester Ferry - RIP (for now)

2006-01-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

Well, the agonizing debates over whether or not the ferry from Rochester to Toronto is a good thing is over - and the ferry lost. Apparently there were a host of reasons why this thing failed - from a lack of experienced people in developing a plan, to the wrong boat size, to a total disinterest from the Canadian's, and a whole lot more.

As someone who was involved in the initial lobbying campaigns for the funding to do this project, here are a couple of my observations. First, CATS founder Dominick DeLucia was one of the slickest fast talkers I ever met. This was a guy who
"graduated first in my class at Simon School - or maybe second". Well, um, which is it? Either it was first or it wasn't... you can't even answer THAT question honestly? In his presentations to UNICON, the Chamber, City Council, the County Leg, and the State delegation, everything was very VERY fast, and very rosey. The numbers looked great, and why shouldn't they? He was looking for $15 million in state funding and loan guarantees!

The various delegations should be taking a big piece of the responsiblity for this failure - they valued union votes over fiscal responsibility, and they didn't use their staff to evaluate the plan. It was the unions (particularly the construction unions) who were really pushing this thing. In fact, I even developed an email e-advocacy campaign where people could send in their letters of support for the ferry to the delegation members! Well, just because lots of people support something, doesn't mean it's a good idea! What if I had a million people support building a giant swastica downtown? Would that mean we should fund the thing? They might STILL have supported it, but given the state had no further comittment to seeing this thing succeed (read: subsidy) they must have known deep in their gut that this was doomed to failure. Ever ride the ferry's in Seattle? They're not luxury, and they're not profitable... they're necessary means of transportation that is state subsidized. The fact is, the State and the Canadian government should have partially subsidized this thing as a mechanism to increase cross-border tourism - and with some simple math, could have figured out the long term benefits. But the state was "broke" and the Canadian's government is equally disfunctional as our own.

On the other hand, i LOVED the ferry. It was a great ride, and I WISH it could have worked, but it sounds more and more like we pulled another bush league move and allowed this thing to be managed by people we knew nothing about (CATS) and later run by a board of people who's real responsibilities lay elsewhere. Why oh why did they put all those City Council members on that board?! Didn't these people have a CITY to run? Couldn't they have brought on some sort of administrator who's single responsibility was seeing that this ferry company as AT LEAST RUN WELL?

If anything, this just proves that (a) City Council members really have very little to do and (b) they're not very good at doing real work when given the chance. Now obviously, the Mayor is also responsible for pushing City Council around - but it's not like that's hard to do with a group as weak as they were (I say "were" because we're finally seeing new people in City Council). And I applaud Karen Noble Hanson (did I just write that?) for her comments in the latest article about the lack of information given the ferry board. I also chide Gladys Santiago for saying everything was a-o-k and that they were given ample information. Gladys, you can stop kissing Johnson's ass now - he's gone - better start sucking up to Duffy or else you might be out of a "job".

Now, I hope that Duffy does something to give the city a real boost. Consider - we can still bond out money to do stuff, so long as the residents want them to! Why not bond out $11.5 million anyway and do a bunch of really nice public works? It shows a tangible comittment to the city, and it makes everyone feel better after this ferry fiasco. Considering all the good things going on downtown - Troup-Howell bridge, Sagamore on East, Corn Hill Landing, Paetec Park, Renaissance Center development, and a host of other things, including the exciting developments in loft apartments, bars, clubs, and restaurants - the City SHOULD take on some more debt to add to all this excitment and make people feel really good about downtown again.

My FIRST suggestion? Take some money and put up a sign across the old McGrory's building on Main Street that shows what's going to be built on that sight - even if it's only conceptual. Residents - and visitors - need to know that exciting stuff is happening in the City, with Renaissance Square being the most anticipated. I think that would be a step in the right direction to giving city residents a psychological boost. And while we're at it, spend some more on City cops to make our streets safer - that too would be a huge bonus to the area.

Just my two- no, six- no, twelve, BAKERS DOZEN, cents!

US Census numbers posted

2005-12-22T13:47:00.000-05:00

Apparently, New York State might lose another 2 seats in the house based on our declining population. According to the latest figures from the Census Bureau, we're at about 19.2 million in population. California is at 36.1 million and Texas is at 22.8 million. Not too far behind is Florida at 17.78 million. All three of those states are growing - albeit California is just under 1% growth, whereas Florida is at 2.3% and Texas is at 1.7%. New York's population actually declined by 0.1% - so, basically we're staying equal. Nevada and Arizona are the two fastest growing states at 3.5% growth each.

The last time we had redistricting to eliminate two house seats it was a huge battle. And if we have to cut another two seats, it'll be worse. New York City is growing, but Upstate continues to lose population. Can we catch up, or reverse this trend? Could New York take the next four years and really change it's policies to improve the quality of life here - causing young people to stay and old people to retire here? The quality of life is good - and after spending some time this past summer in Arizona, I will tell you this: I will never live in Arizona.

This is a case of too many people moving into the dessert, and nature is going to rear it's ugly head and say, "What the fuck humans? This many of you aren't supposed to be here!" What happens if the water gets shut off for a day? Or the power goes down for a week? Even the most oppressive heat in Upstate New York... it's what? 95 degrees? But usually only for 4, 5, 6 days. But in Arizona during the summer? Come on people! Shit, I sweat all winter... if I were to move to Arizona I'd probably melt into nothingness. I'm not trying to pick on Arizona, but quite frankly, I wouldn't feel too badly for the thousands who are moving down there should they all roast without air conditioning for a month. Or possibly experience Return to Thunderdome like battles for drinking water. They'd deserve it for being so arrogant as to think millions of people are supposed to live in the dessert. Didn't Sam Kinneson already make the point? "THERE'S NO FUCKING FOOD IN THE DESSERT! OHHHH! OHHHHHHHHH!"

Dave's New Car

2005-12-16T11:22:00.000-05:00

I'm getting a new car. Now, it's not until March of 06', but I just put in the order. What am I getting? Well, not another Audi, that's for sure. Don't get me wrong, I loved the four-wheel drive, and comfort of heated seats, mirrors, and a good stereo system. However, I didn't love taking the damn thing to the shop twice a month for four years for various problems - ranging from big annoying engine problems to having turn signals, breaklights, and other minor things happen on a regular basis. In fact, as I write this, I have a break light that's out AND a front turn signal. This, after JUST having the car in for it's 60,000 mile service. As a result, while I still love the IDEA of the Audi - particularly a lot of functionality in a car for around $32,000, Julie will never let me get another one. Ever.

That being said, I also drive about 70 miles a day. No, not 70 miles and hour - which is something I frequently do too - but per day. That's going back and forth between Greece and Canandaigua. As a result, I seriously considered a hybrid car - the Prius. I priced it out, and in general thought it was a good idea. However, it took Toyota WAY too long to (a) add the 2006 model information online and (b) have even a 2005 model sitting at any Toyota dealership for me to look at. As such, I came to the conclusion to screw it and instead check out the new Honda Civic Hybrid.

Very cool! I actually got to test drive one at Holtz, and I like what I saw. The one I'm getting includes the navigation system which will be great - especially given the occasional trips we take and don't know where the heck we're going. Here's a picture of the car in the color I'm getting (more or less - just add fog lights for the full effect):

Throw in every feature known to man and the thing comes in just under $25000. Not bad for a car that also gets me about 50mpg on the highway. That's nearly double what I'm doing now, and on regular gas - not the 93 octane the Audi demands! So, in the long run, I'm bumping down the cost of my fillups, and doing it only once a week - not twice! Yeah, it's not all wheel drive, but how often do I take advantage of that? I'd guess 95 percent of my driving these days is highway driving, and the roads are usually fine.

Anyway, I'll post more on here once I know more - and maybe when i can post some more photos and order status update. But right now, the timing is perfect and should have it at the end of February, beginning of March.

The Good Feet Store - What's up with this shit?

2005-12-06T13:31:00.000-05:00

OK - I am sick of the damn commercials for the The Good Feet Store. You know those commercials? "Hi I'm Doctor So-and-so, and my patients with (insert foot disorder here) weren't getting better using a custom orthotics, so I sent them to the good feet store and WOW! They're cured!"

Um, not to sound too stupid, Dr. So-and-so, but, aren't you supposed to be a PODIATRIST? That means to me, an expert in the medicine of the foot? If you're prescribing someone a custom orthoitic, shouldn't it work? How come The Good Feet store can get it right, but you, a DOCTOR, can't help your patients with their painful foot disorders?! What do they have over the counter that could possibly be better than a CUSTOM ORTHOTIC. Presumedly, something that's custom should be better than anything The Good Feet Store can sell me - because the custom one was developed just for ME. Not everyone else who has sore feet, or a sore back, or whatever, but ME! ME! ME! ME! ME! ME!

Maybe I'm stupid? So, I did a Google search to look up the definition of "custom orthotic" and here's what I found:

"Custom-made orthotics are medical devices that allow the feet and ankles to function without pain, and to protect them from repetitive stress of various activities."

Maybe the "Doctor" in this radio commercial is really just one of those "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV (or the radio)" kinds of doctors? Apparently. Either that, or she's the worst podiatrist in the world because her years of medical education have resulted in her custom orthotics being total shit compared to what I can get at The Good Feet Store!

Oh, but it gets better. Here's the definition from The Good Feet Store's website about what the heck they even do: "The Good Feet Store™ personally size your feet for arch supports through biomechanics and your footprint to help you choose an arch support design that will work best from your feet up. After wearing Good Feet Arch Supports, your feet are more correctly aligned and better balanced, causing you to stand straighter, feel taller and pull your stomach in, reducing stress on your back."

Isn't this the same thing as a damn custom orthotic?! It sounds like snake oil to me. Not only does it help your feet, but it also helps your back, makes you taller, and gets rid of your gut! Now if only it got rid of The Consumption, and maybe infant colic, too! And for this purported podiatrist to send her patients there, when it sounds like they do the same thing she does... doesn't that mean that they're competitors? Or, perhaps the doctor doesn't really care cause, well, shit, you've paid her probably $75 for the office visit, and other $200 for HER LOUSY CUSTOM ORTHOTIC THAT DIDN'T WORK, so she's already raped you for nearly $300... why not send you off to someone else to spend god only knows how much more money. Maybe she even gets a kickback from The Good Feet Store?

I may be taking this a bit far, but everytime I hear that commercial on the radio it pisses me off.

This is very funny... and by that I mean, when you read it you will laugh, because it is funny.

2005-11-22T14:33:00.000-05:00

Some of you may read Jonah Goldberg from the National Review Online. If not, regardless of your political ideology, it's worth the read. If for nothing else, he faithfully utlizes Simpons quotes into most of his pieces. Well, anyway, Jonah wrote the following gem regarding Harry Ried and something he said recently which I thought was hysterical:

"In Washington, soft-spokenness is often confused for intelligence and subtlety. We're so accustomed to shouting that when someone whispers we assume there must be something more thoughtful in the offing. A case in point is Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader. Just the other day he told reporters, "There's a dark cloud hanging over the White House." Then, to clarify this obscure metaphor, he added gravely, "It's really a storm cloud."

One expects more Solomonic nuance from the man any day now: "Something's fishy in the White House. And by that I mean the White House really smells much like a fish. An old fish. The sort of fish that smells bad." Or: "Look before you leap — because that way you'll know what you're leaping over and might not fall.""

LOL - I think that's great... and why isn't Yogi Berra a US Senator?! So, I got to thinking, what other obvious metaphors or cliches can I come up with that are just as funny with unnecessary descriptions added? Well, there's always the one all sports stars use, "We're just gonna take it one game at a time." Yes, and by that, I mean, we're not going to look ahead to future games. We're going to focus just on this one. Just this one game. You dig?

Then there's thanking Jesus for everything. "We couldn't have pulled this one off if it weren't for Jesus," I mean, if it weren't for Jesus, we wouldn't have won. Jesus was just pulling for us, and was opposed to the other team winning. God and Jesus both hate the other team. You dig?

I was listening to one of the financial podcasts this morning and they were talking about "Black Friday," after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year. If shoppers don't come out, apparently it's a black day for the economy. So anyway, the added description could go something like this: "Retailers are dreading Black Friday, which is coming this week. If shoppers don't come out, it'll be a black day for them. It means consumers aren't spending and the day will be black - black like a lump of coal Santa leaves in your stocking if you're bad. The retailers aren't bad people, but they're getting a big black lump of coal from Santa this year on Black Friday. A big, black, lump of coal - which is worthless to them - cause they don't even have a coal burning furnace, so it's twice as bad."

I think I could write these all day! Please feel free to add your own gems!

Time for a LIVE post!

2005-11-21T20:21:00.000-05:00

Well, it's live while I write it, but it'll be long dead when I'm done. I'm sitting here at the Old Toad being a total nerd. I could just be drinking my Blackbird Oatmeal Stout, however I feel it's necessary to bring the computer along just in case. In case of what? Hmmm.... in case I actually need to interact with real people, rather than just AOL Instant Messenger people. What makes this especially nerdy is that Jason Childers is sitting next to me playing on his computer!

I've discovered a great game recently - on Yahoo games - Literati! OK, it's just scrabble without the license, but it's a great game. It makes me realize how lousy a scrabble player I am. Now, I'm not terrible, but I never know all those two letter words that fit in between other words so I can count like, oh, three words at the same time for 40 or 50 points. But it's still a lot of fun and my vocabulary is at least good enough to compete at if not a high level, a fairly high one. For some reason, I have never been a big fan of Yahoo. I've never used it as a search engine, and the only time I do use it is occasionally on Yahoo Messenger to talk to Julie who refuses to get an account on AIM. Granted, all our friends are on AIM, but whatever.... she uses my computer all the time anyway while I'm logged in, so for whatever it's worth.

Well, that's enough for now... maybe I'll write again when the quiz is over. Cheers!

RNA Medals Needed

2005-11-07T14:41:00.000-05:00

I assume most people don't give a rats ass about coin collecting, however it's one of my passions, and I've got a list of RNA Presidential Medals I still need. I'm posting it here mainly for my covenience, however if anyone happens upon this and actually has one of the medals I need, all the better! Here's the list:

1915, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1926, 1928, 1929... then ALL of the 1930s... then 1940, 1941, 1942, 1946, and finally 1950. That's it! All in all, not too bad. I only need 5 medals from the 40s and the 1950 Pittman medal, and I'm all set from 1940 and up. Then it gets a little more tricky with those early medals, but they do show up from time to time.

UPDATE: Just got the 1944 Hutchinson medal at the RNA's coin show on Saturday. Yay! One down, twenty-six to go.

Off topic: You've Gotta be Kidding Me

2005-11-06T20:16:00.000-05:00

Sandy Parker, CEO of the Rochester Business Alliance knows how to merge two corporate cultures into one! Read this from today's Democrat & Chronicle: "On the changes in the organization: "When we put two organizations under one roof, we really didn't spend the proper amount of time making sure integration worked. We didn't create a culture for the RBA. We had two cultures. So we needed to spend a lot of time on that. We've done it, and I think we have a staff now that is focused on moving the organization together and moving forward."

Please reread that quote from Ms. Parker. Now, let me run a few names past you:

Tom Mooney, Angela Monachino, Charlie Goodwin, Gael Barrett, Libby McShane, Anna Vulaj, Wyoma Best, Bridget Pulver, Andrea Paul, Kevin Kelley, Jean Kase, Henry Gottfried, David Benesch, John Zaepfel, Claire Kenney, Liz Perez... and me! (I may be forgetting some folks - including the HTR staff - so, please correct me if you recall them).

There are six still at the RBA - Becky Brown, Nan Brunett, Nina Shelton, Paulette Birch, Susan George, and Danielle Smith (who is putting in her two week notice on Monday)... so really, there'll be FIVE former Chamber people left.

That was how Sandy successfully created a culture - by eliminating all the Chamber of Commerce staff, keeping the vast majority of the IMC's staff (a couple of them are gone, but at least one cut his own throat through amazing stupidity, and a couple others left for better things). Did this require amazing management skills? Did this really merge two corporate cultures into one? Well, it eliminated one culture and basically said to those remaining: YOU ADOPT OUR CULTURE OR YOU'RE FIRED MOTHER FUCKER!!!

Does that about capture it?

Best cards

2005-11-02T20:51:00.000-05:00

Well, before I post anything else, gotta post pics of the best wedding cards. OK... by far, the best card came from Chris Barrett. Here are the pictures of it first:

OK.... now, for the best part? It's HANDMADE! Julie and I were like, "NO WAY! THIS COULDN'T BE HANDMADE!" Well, lo-and-behold... it is indeed handmade. Chris - start making these professionally!

Now, card number two is from Josh Liller, and here it is... (needs no explanation?)

GREAT card! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Thanks Josh!

More good wedding stuff to come!

Married and back home!

2005-11-02T13:22:00.000-05:00

Haven't had a chance to post in quite some time, however I had many good reasons! For those who may not know, Julie and I were married on October 22nd! In fact, got back from our honeymoon in St. Lucia yesterday (November 1st), so I've really been unable to get anything updated on the weblog. However, thanks to some smart friends, I have a link to some of the wedding photos: http://homepage.mac.com/paploo42/PhotoAlbum1.html. Thanks to Jason Childers for setting this up!

We should also have a link to all the photos taken by our photographer, however I haven't gotten word from him yet on where to go to view it all. As soon as I know, it'll be posted too. Scott Fybush also took video at the wedding, so as soon as he's got something for me, I'll be sure to turn it into something that can be posted online. Probably not on Blogger - I don't know if there's a file size limit, and I can only assume a big video file would be frowned upon. Then again, Blogger is owned by Google, and since Google would like to have a repository of all informaiton everywhere, perhaps they don't care? Regardless, I have lots of sites to host the video on.

I've also got tons of pics from the honeymoon in St. Lucia. I'll have a separate post about the honeymoon shortly. But for now, thought everyone would enjoy the first pics. Again, thanks Jason!

Woah

2005-10-02T00:20:00.000-04:00

Well, what a night it's been. It's about 12:20am as I write this and I'm sitting at Spot Coffee. The day started out with so much promise! Julie and I went to the farmers' market, had breakfast at Highland Park Diner, went over to Powers Farm Market to check out the teepees... all was going well. Later in the day, I smoked a nice Cuban cigar. After that, my future brother-in-law, Mark, came over and we watched Bubba Hotep... a great movie staring Bruce Campbell as Elvis and Ozzie Davis as John F. Kennedy. It wasn't until shortly thereafter when things took a turn.

I am the designated driver for Julie and her friend Julie tonight for a work baccelorette party. As we're leaving, getting ready to turn onto Dewey Avenue, we notice that her brother and his girl friend have pulled the car into Pizza Hut. Next thing I notice, they're PUSHING THEIR CAR into the parking lot. We immediatly turn into the lot to see what happened. Turns out their car just stopped running. Well, I picked up the two Julies, dropped them off at Mex on Alexander Street, and then drove back to Greece to see if they'd gotten the car started. No such luck. They end up calling AAA to get the car towed. I run home to grab my laptop, thinking it's going to be a while, and drive back over to Pizza Hut after wolfing down my second Lean Pocket of the day.

We wait... for what felt like a very long time. Finally a FUCKING VAN pulls up. Now, I'm no towing expert, but a van isn't usually what I think of when it comes to towing a car. Apparently, AAA didn't believe us when we said the car wouldn't start and that it had nothing to do with the battery. Maybe it was the fuel pump, we suggested. Anyway, this kid gets out of the van and boldly states that he's going to jump the battery. Um, yeah, there's no problem with the battery you shithead!

A bit of a side note: Mark's car is a thousand years old. Well, not literally. It's a Plymouth of some sort with a 1988 body and a 1991 engine - sporting about 130,000 miles. About the only parts of this car that aren't going bad are the battery and the starter which was replaced just a week earlier. So anyway, the kid decides jumping the battery ain't gonna work! Next, he pours some gasoline directly into the fuel injector to see if that will get the car to start. Again, no luck. He calls a tow truck.

The tow truck is a good HOUR away. Apparently, there was a vehicle on the Parkway that lost a wheel (it was a drunk driver incident, according to the two truck driver). We wait, and wait, and wait some more. Eventually the tow truck comes and we get the thing hitched up and we're off. Where are we off to? THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!!! Hamlin, to be exact, but really I think I heard banjos playing in the distance. Apparently Diane's cousin, or newphew or whatever owns his own shop. I felt like I was driving into the middle of the woods to dispose of a body - or in this case, a dead car. We get to the shop - driving down a winding path about 1000 feet off the main road, through the woods, with no one around. They drop off the car, and Diane's mom comes and picks them up. She did not appear to be thrilled to be there.

Anyway, my next step is to figure out where the hell I am so I can find my way back in time to get back downtown to pick up the two Julies. Apparently, as long as you drive north, you eventually hit the Parkway again, which took me back to Lake Avenue, and back downtown.

The journey is now over, running from 7pm to just before midnight and here I sit at Spot Coffee waiting for the call to take everyone home. I'm not sure how long Spot is open, but so long as everyone doesn't stay out past 2am, I should be ok. Exactly the way I wanted to spend my Saturday night! Too bad I didn't get any pictures...

Toronto pics

2005-10-01T13:53:00.000-04:00

Nothing too remarkable here - and not much of a story to tell - however, I did want to get these pictures posted at some point. Basically, they're from Photonics North, albeit not the show itself. Ferry ride over, really, which was great! The boat runs smooth as can be, and it's FAST. Or, at least it feels really fast when you try to stand on the rear deck with the boat in motion. I can see how people might lose all sorts of things off the back of that boat (glasses, wallets, keys, friends...)

Here they are - inside the boat, outside the deck, through the front observation lounge, and a nice view of Toronto as we arrived:

M&Ms

2005-09-28T15:17:00.000-04:00

I still need to post my fast ferry pics - which I'll do later - but in the mean time, just a quick observation. We have a "large" jar of M&Ms at our office for Javelin, Infotonics, and other folks to enjoy. I put large in quotes because I don't think there's a size large enough to satisfy everyone! I just took a small handful of them and realized I hate orange M&Ms. It's not that they don't taste exactly the same as all other M&Ms, I just don't like that color. They're the first ones I eat, too, so I don't have to look at them. I guess I can see why weirdo muscians demand bowl's of single colors before and after a show. Granted, that's absolutely insane, but they're musicians, and apparently allowed to be crazy-go-nuts.

Anywho, that also got me to thinking about the worst experience from my Vegas trip - the M&Ms Store. Holy shit, what a pain in the ass THAT was. I like M&Ms, but to have a whole store dedicated to them? Filled with plush dolls, games, shot glasses and other crap? Yeah, yeah, yeah.... I collect COINS, for cryin' out loud, so how's that any different. I guess it's the FRENZIED INSANITY of the store. There are four or five floors (I forget the exact number) and each floor is filled with FRENZIED PEOPLE. Kids and adults going crazy - like all this shit is going to disappear into the ether if they don't get their hands on it NOW. Not too mention, the over priced "special" colors of M&Ms you can only get THERE. Lines of people demanding their special colored M&Ms (is that politically correct? can I call M&Ms 'colored'?). I was waiting for Rob to buy his stuff and it was nearly impossible to even find one place to stand and not totally be in the way of other folks desperately trying to buy their M&M memorabilia.

I might be going a little overboard here, but the experience was so unpleasant, I'm thinking of only buying Reece's Pieces from now on. Is there a Reece's Store somewhere that can ruin that for me too? Perhaps I should stick with Neco Waffers - everybody hates those.

Ignore that last post... except for the calendar part

2005-09-09T21:03:00.000-04:00

Well, as of today, Jason is no longer at R-Surplus. I won't really go into it, as the guy who runs it is a friend, but needless to say, it wasn't working out for Jason. So, you can pretty much ignore that piece of the below post. On the other hand, be SURE to go to Fybush.com to check out the North East Radio Watch and buy your own copy of the 2006 Tower Site Calendar. It's the perfect present for someone, um, who, um..... yeah.... Well, buy one anyway!

Ok.... now, what else to talk about? Going to Toronto on the fast ferry on Monday morning! We're going up for Photonics North which will be held at the Toronto Congress Centre. It'll also be the official launch of a new group that Javelin is managing called the International Photonics Commercialization Alliance. What is the IPCA? Well, it's essentially an alliance of clusters and other industry groups, as well as researchers in the area of photonics and optics. The purpose of the group is really to encourse the commercialization of new photonics technologies. That means finding industry partners, assisting in patents, licensing, venture capital, SBIRs/STTRs, etc. Should be an interesting endeavor.

While we're talking about SBIRs, just submitted my first one for Javelin with a lot of help from some great folks at Infotonics. It's a USDA sponsored SBIR to do a feasibility study in developing a "MEMS-Safe" brand for organic foods utilizing microsystems technologies to track and trace these organic goods. It's kindof unlikely that we'll win on our first try, but it's definately good practice. I'm now working on our second one - it's through the Department of Energy and has to do with managing data and facilitating the decision making process for businesses, not-for-profits, and research institutions. The primary focus of these SBIRs, however, is that the technology proposed can be commercialized in three years or less. As it's a software solution, that's no problem.

That's about it for now. I'll post some pics from our ferry ride and Photonics North.

New Tower Site Calendar - 2006!!!

2005-09-05T16:11:00.000-04:00

For all of you radio fanatics out there - not the kind who just like to LISTEN to radio, but also love radio towers - good buddy Scott Fybush has released the 2006 Tower Site Calendar. Go to THIS PAGE to purchase your own copy. I have all of them from past years - and you should too!

And, while we're pimping out friends, be sure to go to R-Surplus to either buy company surplus, or, if you ARE a business with a ton of stuff just lying around and you're looking to get rid of it, use their service!

Hmmmm... let's see... who else? Well, there's Javelin Associates, but we're too hip for a website of our own.

New Digital Cameras

2005-09-02T11:07:00.000-04:00

Cameras and printers, that is. I'm on the brink of buying a Kodak camera and printer after the announcements from the last couple days from Kodak. Yesterday, Kodak announced the launch date that you can buy the new EASYSHARE-ONE. Here are the specs:

4.0 MP and KODAK Color Science Chip

SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH C-VARIOGON 3X Optical Zoom Lens

256 MB internal memory* stores up to 1500 favorite pictures

3.0 in. (7.6 cm) share-friendly, rotating touch screen and stylus

Wireless for instant sharing

Controls to create pictures and video just the way you want

PRICE: $599

(A little pricey for only 4.0MP, why does Kodak always get something wrong? 5.0 is like the damn STANDARD these days, and that 1MP might make the difference between someone buying it or something else!)

And, here are the pictures:

For me, I love the idea of being able to wirelessly transmit my pics from the camera to my computer from anywhere that's got WiFi. Possible applications? Well, I have a wireless network in my house which also covers my whole yard - I'm outside, snapping pictures, send them up to the computer from there and I don't have to bother doing it manually. Seems like a good idea to me.

But what I like even more are the new EASYSHARE printers that have universal compatibility and have WiFi capability. Right now, whenever I print pictures, it's kindof a crapshoot as to what the output is going to be. Usually what happens is I get my settings fucked up, and I end up with terrible quality images printed out. Personally, I like the idea of being able to print my pictures and put them in a damn PHOTO ALBUM (I know, what a concept!). A photo album is easy to show to people, the images themselves don't degrade for quite some time, and it's a nice backup to having your pictures all on your hard drive. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're all supposed to back up our drives, but how many people actually do it? (Except maybe Benesch - got to have a reason to have all those terrabytes of storage space, right?)

To help me expedite the process of having high quality images, which I can show to grandma, who, quite frankly, has no interest seeing these images on my laptop, Kodak came out with the EASYSHARE Photo Printer 500. Here's the picture:

Looks pretty cool to me.... here are the specs:

Large 3.5 in. (8.9 cm) LCD screen

Print from digital media cards and USB devices

Features KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology

Red eye reduction

Wireless capability (Wi-Fi ready*, BLUETOOTH® wireless technology enabled)

Compatible with PictBridge-enabled digital cameras

Four print sizes and four color modes

PRICE: $249.00

Yeah, I know, printers are cheap these days, but I'd rather pay more to be sure that I get images that are any good! Anyway, just my thoughts for now... I'm sure they'll change later. I'd just like to actually buy something make by Kodak. Is there something inherently wrong with that?!

The NFL COULD be the stupidest organization in the world

2005-08-31T15:37:00.000-04:00

DATELINE SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - The Saints will head to San Antonio after their preseason game against the Oakland Raiders on Sept. 1 because most of New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. Tens of thousands of refugees from the storm have been staying at the Superdome, but officials said they would have to evacuate as flood water continues to rise. The storm ripped two holes in the curved roof of the building. The team is still uncertain whether the Superdome will be ready for its home opener against the New York Giants on Sept. 18.

WHAT THE FUCK?! The team is STILL UNCERTAIN?! Let's see.... hundreds, maybe thousands are dead. Around five million people were without power. Eighty-percent of the city was flooded. The levees are broken and the water levels are rising. Thousands upon thousands of people are without homes, cars, supplies, water, food and the like. And the fucking NFL won't say today that the team won't play at the Superdome? Do they have a problem with oxygen reaching their brain? OF COURSE THEY'RE NOT PLAYING AT THE SUPERDOME IN TWO WEEKS!!!

Is the NFL so stupid, or conceited, or both, to think that they will be playing football there? This is like if the NFL had their main offices in the World Trade Centers and on September 11th, say, 20 minutes after the attack, the NFL makes a statement that the office might have to relocate tomorrow. If the Superdome sunk into the ocean, would they try to play under water? These guys are so self important that it makes me sick.

D&C Troubles

2005-08-24T14:30:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: This is as good as it gets! http://www.rbj.net/fullarticle.cfm?sdid=56591.... this was just published a few minutes ago.

Does anyone else in Rochester think this is nuts? http://rochesterdandc.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050824/NEWS01/508250328

I've heard about the rift between the union and the D&C for years, but it must have just really hit me that they've now gone 13 years without a contract. THIRTEEN YEARS???? Doesn't this harken back to a time when US Presidents inserted themselves into these kinds of labor disputes? Reagan and the air traffic controllers? Or Clinton and the MLB? There must be some way to resolve this labor dispute. Clearly negotiations are not "in good faith" as Thomas Flynn suggests. If they were, perhaps there'd have been some conclusion to this, oh, say, a decade ago!

I have a buddy who's a local and national news nut - yup Scott, that's you - who's been keeping me informed on this for years, but I've only paid coursery attention to it at the most. But I think the D&C, by running the story in the first place, has finally caught my attention. There are no labor disputes that cannot be resolved. There is some give and take in every negotiation. Scott suggests that it's up to the subscriber base of the D&C to cancel their subscriptions and write to the paper letting them know that it's because of the labor dispute that they're cancelling. That may be a good solution, but would enough people actually care to do it?

Would a resolution of the labor dispute lead to higher quality reporting in the pages of the D&C? I tell you what, that's something that would grab MY attention. Most Sundays for me are spent first reading the D&C Sunday paper and realizing how mediocre it is. I then usually hop in the car, head over to Wegmans and pick up a bagel and a copy of the New York Times. I spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon sitting outside with my coffee, bagel, and NY Times and read it almost from front to back! I then think to myself, "Why is the D&C such a crappy paper in comparison?! Why do they even get the comics section wrong!? We're a good sized city with lots of stuff going on... maybe if they raised the price a nickel?"

I've also gotten into the habit of reading The Buffalo News on occasion, and their local news coverage is far superior. Their editoral section is better, and I'd say it's more broadly based in terms of opions expressed. Now granted, their a far more independent organizations, but shouldn't the D&C - founded by Frank Gannett - the former headquarters of one of the biggest newspaper companies in the world - be one of the best small market papers in the world? With our educated workforce, and with the proliferation of the internet and information, isn't there more that could be written that isn't included in the D&C already? I ask you!

Vegas trip, et al

2005-08-22T20:08:00.000-04:00

Well, right after I posted that last weblog entry we got an announcement that the flight was delayed because of "bad weather in Chicago." Riiiiight.... let's see... thanks to the WiFi at the airport, and weather.com, I immediately checked the weather which was basically nice. So, immediately I knew United was lying to me. Oh well... perhaps I'd be spending the night in Chicago? We did get back on track about and hour-and-a-half late, and once on the place got the straight story. Apparently there were air traffic control problems. The captain added that is was windy in Chicago (imagine that!) and that they were only using two runways. But the real problems were technical. Add to that they had issues with an airshow that was being held over the weekend with a couple jets accidentally touching wings, and some pieces falling off, and that couldn't have helped.

Just one more comment about the flight, before I post the pics, but I decided to listen to the flightdeck through the headsets they give you. Very interested stuff. I don't know what many of the acronyms mean, but as we were flying over Buffalo, control said something wasn't working and the response from the plane was "Oh God!" Yeah. That's really what you want to hear!

Anyway, here's the photos!

First off... if you ever get the chance to drive from Rochester to Tucson a word of advice: DON'T. Granted, I guess it's better than being at work, but 15 hours of driving per day, stops for gas and generally mediocre food, and an aching back sure don't make for a fun time. I tried listening to local radio shows throughout the trip and ironically, some of the funniest stuff was heard as we were driving through BUFFALO. The rest of the country has something in common... here's a picture to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Yes people, that's purportedly the world's largest CROSS. The farther away from civilization you get, the more religion you drive by. There was one stretch where Rob and I counted a half dozen churches in probably only 30 miles. Not small churches, but these enormous houses of God. When we didn't see churches, we saw the following:

Yup, lots of billboards. I thought this one was particularly interesting. Fireworks and pancakes. How can you go wrong? The other picture came out really nice, and I think was taken while driving through New Mexico. Actually, that pic is much better than most of the rest of the ride. We had overcast skys from Rochester to just about New Mexico. It's just that the land was very bare.

Now, onto the more fun stuff. For instance, here's a couple pics of the strip from around New York, New York, and the Star Trek Experience:

That Star Trek Experience is amazing! Anyone who's a, um, nerd like me, will love it. If you're not a ST fan, you'll find this whole thing ridiculous. When you're standing in line to enter and a Ferengi pushes his way through the line to cut to the front, and think this is perfectly normal, you know you're a ST fan. I also got the obligatory picture of myself sitting in the captain's chair which I'll scan and post later. Also got to go into the Borg assimilation chamber, though I didn't get my picture taken in it. Oh yeah, and the Klingon ride is great, unless you get motion sickness easily. I do. Hell, I get sick reading in the car! But it was still really amazing. The Borg 4D thing was cool, but it seemed too short, or was generally lacking something. But I still highly recommend it. Even had a drink at "Quarks," though nothing with alcohol as it was AFTER the Klingon ride and I was still feeling like making my own gagh right on the bar.

More to come later!

Vegas Trip Nearly Over

2005-08-21T15:02:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm sitting here in the airport waiting to board my flight back to Rochester (via Chicago) watching folks get off the plane. I know this is a bass-ackwards way of posting about my Vegas trip, but unfortunately, I stayed at a, um, classic Vegas hotel which apparently hasn't figured out wi-fi for all the hotel rooms yet. Ironically, in the middle of nowhere in Missouri, I had BETTER access to wireless. But the Vegas airport seems to be doing quite well.

Anyway, as soon as I'm back in town and have a moment to reflect on this whole trip - including such exciting times as driving from Rochester to Tucson - something EVERYONE should do at least once - to driving from Tucson to Vegas, and then all the nifty stuff we saw, did, and ate. I wish I had carried my camera more, but it's a little too large to comfortably carry with me all the time. Guess it's time to pick up a new pocket-sized digital camera.

Anyway, we're boarding soon, so I'll post this and get some pics up later. Cheers!

2005-08-14T10:13:00.000-04:00

Here's some pics from our big night, albeit without it going until like 4am (if you're a fan of foodie movies, you'll know the reference). Pics of Julie, myself, Chris, Rob and Chastity. This was the big fancy meal before our trip to Arizona. See how nice Rob and Chastity look together? And WHY exactly is he moving? Oh well... gotta get it out of his system I guess! Anyway, enjoy the photos below... and be sure to look for pics from our across country drive. I'm waiting to see if we have any interesting chase pics... running away from locals who want to lynch us, or local police who want to throw us in jail in return for massive bribes, and I'm sure the many beautiful places that make up America!

Jason as Arbiter Bibendi, last quiz for Rob (at least for a while)

2005-08-11T19:20:00.000-04:00

Below are pics from this past Monday's quiz over at the Old Toad. We did pretty well, something like 12 out of 20. We always think we should have more, but it's usually a crapshoot. If we're lucky, we guess right from time to time. Anyway, the pics below show Jason reading, Jason with the Toad's manager, Jules, Jason with the winner of the quiz, and a couple pics of the group... including a none too flattering pic of Rob and Chris which I think Rob will be demanding I take down! Of course, if he hadn't kicked my ass in poker during my bachelor party, I might consider it. But at this time, he's SOL. Then again, he did get me a bunch of really nice cigars... and we're going to Vegas next week (after driving to Arizona) so maybe he'll get crushed in REAL gambling.

Jason's link fixed...

2005-08-09T14:06:00.000-04:00

Hmmmm.... well, i left off a "t" in Jason's blog address.... it should work now, if anyone's interested!

Insert Title Here

2005-08-07T12:41:00.000-04:00

First off, you HAVE to read my brothers first weblog entry. It's at jasongott666.blogspot.com. Really funny stuff. It's a run down of a recent interchange of emails between himself and this weird'o girl on Friendster. I think I started to create a Friendster page, but frankly, it requires a little more effort than I'm willing to put in these days. I think just doing occasional weblog entries is remarkable.

It's Sunday, around 12:45pm as I'm writing this. I just spent the last couple hours sitting in my backyard reading The New York Times as well as various pieces of the D&C. Joining me, my papers, and coffee, was a neighborhood mystery cat who hopped up on my lap for about an hour and purred. She was very friendly, and maybe I'll get a picture if she ever comes back. I think she's a Mainecoon cat, as she is very large, but looks like she could stand to eat a bit more. Then again, that's hard to judge as my own cat is so, um, mildly overweight!

I have to say, on days like this, it's nice to just sit outside and enjoy the outdoors - even if I'm just sitting on my ass reading the paper. Julie and I are thinking that next year's project will be having a stone patio installed in the backyard. Then, I'll extend the garden to be right up against the patio. We're also looking to add some privacy back there, particularly as our neighbor's house on the other side (not the new house next door) is kindof an eyesore. Big leafy bushes should take care of that, so long as I can thin out the trees hanging over the yard enough to let in at least two hours of light daily.

I'm sure there'll be plenty of progress photos as that project progresses. In the meantime, I think I'll head back out and get some photos. Of what? I'm not sure. But I haven't really gotten a lot of use of my digital camera. Of course, my bachelor party was last night, so I MIGHT have taken some pictues then, but of course not! Oh well... All I can say is, thank god we've hired a professional photographer for the wedding, or we might miss out on documenting it as well.

Wedding registry

2005-08-01T22:22:00.000-04:00

Well, lo-and-behold! Our wedding is now less than three months away and we're sooooooo organized that we even have our wedding registry basically done. In fact, here's a link to them!

The first is at: www.crateandbarrel.com

The second is at: www.bedbathandbeyond.com

Feel more than free to go to either one of them and buy us something! Hey! I'm not against begging! I figure most people, however, are as lazy as me and will wait till the last possible second to even THINK about getting anything. Here's a friendly reminder that your friends Julie and Dave are getting married! And what better way to celebrate that than with a coffee maker? Or some nice China, perhaps?

New desk, nice garden, new house next door

2005-07-31T22:09:00.000-04:00

Well, I can finally post the pics I wanted to. It only took about two weeks to figure it out. First of all, much to the delight of Julie - as my shit is no longer all over the floor - I have a desk! In fact, here's a picture of it:

Isn't it great? Well, maybe not great, but at least it's a lot better than what I WAS using - a two foot high side table that just barely held my monitor.

Additionally, I wanted to upload a few pics of our garden! These pics were taken a couple weeks ago, when the lillies still had flowers on them. They're in much sadder shape today, but that's why we take pictures!

So, without further ado, here's a couple images from the garden. I think the fact that merely one year ago there was only dead shit here, this is a HUGE improvement:

There are a few more images, but they're not as interesting. Unless you'd like to see pictures of my tomato plants, but I think if you've seen one, you've seen them all. Of course, the first are brandywine variety, which is a little esoteric as tomatoes go, so maybe once some of them start to ripen, I'll post those images here.

Last but not least, the new house next door. As you may know, when we bought our house, there was an empty lot next door. Everyone we knew said, "There's no way someone will build a house there! That lot is tiny! They'd be CRAZY to build a $120,000 house on a street of $85,000 houses!" Well, aparently, someone was out there who wanted to go against common sense, and built a house. Personally, I would have really liked to have grown all sorts of vegitables on the lot. I had planned to grow lots of vine plants there - zucchini and pumpkins mostly. Oh well... I just hope the neighbor is a reasonable person, or else up goes the 25 foot fence! Here's the house:

That's it for me for a little while.... gotta enjoy seeing all these lovely pictures posted online! Woo-hoo!

Fat cat

2005-07-29T20:21:00.000-04:00

See my cat? Isn't she fat?

Actually, I don't want to pick on my cat, here, but I finally figured out what the problem was with uploading pics to blogger.... you need to have file extensions in the names so blogger KNOWS what you're trying to upload!

So, with that... let me try and do the weblog entry I WANTED to do in the FIRST PLACE!

Blogger is annoying me

2005-07-21T19:29:00.000-04:00

Well, this post WAS going to be titled: "New Desk, Nice Garden, New House Next Door" because I *thought* I was going to be able to upload picture via the new blogger images tool. However, each time I tried to upload images the thing would fail. I thought it might have been a problem was Safari, so I tried Explorer. Explorer sucks so bad that I didn't even see the icon for the image upload. Then I tried Foxfire. Foxfire got me the furthest without either crashing or just not letting me even have the option of uploading images, but the system still refused to take pics. I tried big file sizes, small file sizes and neither worked. UGH.

Yeah yeah, I know, I could just upload my pics to one of my regular websites, like, for instance, www.TrainingRochester.com, but then I have to take up my own space for pics that are supposed to be hosted for FREE on Blogger!!! I'd use my coin club website, but the folks who host it don't reply to emails anymore, so I can even access the server right now. AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Oh well... guess I'll just have to wait and try this again later when I'm less annoyed. I DO in fact have some very nice pics of my new desk, garden, and neighbors' house, but you'll just have to imagine them for now.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

2005-07-18T15:18:00.000-04:00

Ah! Gotta get a scream out now and then. Things are sooooooo busy that I shouldn't even be writing this right now, but if I don't take a break my brain will explode. Granted, I just did the math on my training program and I'm feeling MUCH better as I wasn't sure how many course offerings we were going to have, but it looks like right now I have about 20 trainers offering about 130 courses. There might be more, or fewer than that, but it's about right.

Addendum

2005-07-08T09:33:00.000-04:00

http://rochesterdandc.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050708/BUSINESS/307080001

Harris RF/Communications to add 150 jobs in Rochester. Must say, this is all really good stuff. Now, hopefully, Infotonics will get some major projects we've been working on and we can add some additional good news to the local economic outlook.