Giving thanks

I have a lot to be thankful for… but I don’t like getting too personal on this site.  So instead here’s a favorite quote of mine, from an old horoscope (don’t know the date):

I advise you not to wait around to find out if you’re a chosen one.  Choose yourself.

In the same vein, I suggest that you not allow passionless smart people to define the contours of the upcoming debate.  Jump in now and outline your smart, passionate arguments for everyone to see.  Finally, translate your brainstorms into practical action immediately. 

Don’t wait for the mythical “perfect moment.”

Booya!  From the LEO Scorpio horoscope, probably from around 1992-1995.

The Name Game

I get a kick out of people who ask me about my name.  I’ve lived with these types of people all my life, but they still either amuse me or annoy me, depending on what kind of a day I’m having.

Same goes for wanting to ask me what my ethnicity/heritage is… typically awesome exchange…

They: “Sooo…. uh… where are you FROM?”
Me: [insert Midwestern city I grew up in]
They: “Oh…” shifts uncomfortably (some of them drop it at this point, others press on) “I mean, uh… are you Spanish?”
Me: “No.  I’m a fourth Scotch-Irish, a fourth German, and half Peruvian.”
They: (happy to finally know) “Ohhhhh…”
I loooooove to trip people out on St. Patrick’s Day.  “Yea I’m Irish!”  Hee hee.

But back to the name thing.  Without going into details, my first and last name are Latino, while my middle name sounds white.  (Meaning, it is not a name in Spanish.)  Check out where your last name is on the list of 5,000 surnames from Census data.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/us/17surnames.html?_r=1&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Organizations/C/Census%20Bureau

This is only the second time they’ve made such a list, but this time 2 “Hispanic” names cracked the top 10.  Booya!  Yea, I prefer the term Latino to Hispanic, but sadly here in Columbus most people don’t understand the distinction.  (Or get that some people would prefer you used the actual country, instead of a generic term.)  Most people won’t get mad at you if you use the term they don’t like, but freaking ask them about it if you are worried/care.

And to anyone out there ready to rail about illegal immigrants and the immigrant “problem” and whatever other BS you have stored up in your hateful little heart, shove it.

Crowd funding

I love love love the idea of raising money in this fashion.  If you have 100 super rich dudes, and they each donate $10,000 (chump change for them but impossible for you and I) you get a total of $1,000,000.  But you could also raise $1 M by getting 50,000 people to each donate $20.  Or by getting 10,000 people to each donate $100.

A relatively new idea, but not my idea.  So I heard about this a while back (maybe 6 months ago) on another blog and it really made sense, especially after I read a NY Times article on how musicians are (rightfully) circumventing the traditional music machine and just selling their music directly online to fans and setting up tours based on fan location/interest.  It also really ties in with this “swarm” concept that a friend of mine kept talking about.

So yes, once again everything ties together, everything is related.  It’s all the same thing!  (OK, that’s going too far, but you get the gist.)

Greyhound doesn’t suck!

Recently took Greyhound and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it didn’t suck!  My trip was roundtrip from Columbus to Detroit, and I’m giving it a thumbs up.

This was my first Greyhound trip out of Columbus, and I really only had a few complaints.  (Please note I have no affiliation to Greyhound, so it’s not like I’m scoring some free tix with this generally positive review.)

The Columbus station was clean, including the bathroom.  I was happy it had some hot food options, although I wasn’t hungry so early in the morning.  They had lots of flat screen TVs to help cope with the inevitable boredom in a place like that.  On the down side, getting inside the station was silly (the south and west/Mall sides have no entrance).  My bus was supposed to leave at 6:45 AM, but we didn’t line up (after the driver calls out) until around then, so we were like 15 minutes late leaving.  People line up to get good seats, there’s no assigned seating.

Support your local business

You don’t have to be a hippie to support local business.  In fact, it makes good economic sense.  A series of studies have shown that buying from a local business keeps more money in your area. 

The research firm Civic Economics found that in Austin, spending $100 at Borders would circulate $13 into the Austin economy.  Spending the same $100 at the two local bookstores would circulate $45 into the Austin economy.

(Paraphrased from: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/05/16/EDGKOP3E851.DTL )

Another recent study found other benefits for San Francisco, although note the study was funded by a group of local retailers.  (Still, it makes sense to me.)

“[The study] concluded that local stores and restaurants return much more money to the surrounding community, since they tend to buy their supplies and services locally.”  When considering jobs created both by direct hiring and indirectly through vendors and service providers, the locally owned bookstores create an estimated 2.14 local jobs for every million dollars of books sold… while the chain stores created 1.27 local jobs for every million dollars of sales.

(Paraphrased and quoted from: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/05/03/BUG58PJQ4V1.DTL&type=business )

(edited to add this additional quote…) 

 Statistics just published by the Small Business Adminstration Office of Advocacy show that … small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all firms. They create more than half of the private non-farm gross domestic product… and small businesses create 60 to 80 percent of the net new jobs.

(Paraphrased from: http://www.businessknowhow.com/blog/2005/08/small_business.php)  Of course, not every small business is a local business, but many are.

More stuff to investigate here:
http://www.livingeconomies.org/
http://www.buylocalphilly.com/

Too little, too late

This article (http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2007/11/17/small_car_sweepstakes.ART_ART_11-17-07_C16_R28GC79.html?sid=101) talks about how the “American” auto industry is going to focus on smaller cars.  The article is mostly about Ford, and there is some mention of GM.

They made their bed, now sleep in it!  Seriously, they were chasing the big profit in trucks and SUV’s because they couldn’t figure out how to make money on small cars.  Except, funny thing, other companies were making money on small cars.  This article would signal hope for Ford and GM, if it was written in 1999 or 2004.  Now is just too late.

Newness

So I’m returning to this blog, but changing the focus a bit.  I have all sorts of thoughts about whatever, and want to collect them here.  Previously I was trying to do reviews (food, music, movies) but I didn’t have the time/energy to write very often.  I will still do food and movie reviews, but I’ll be adding various transportation/urban development postings.  Nothing about scooters though, because there is another place for that.  (Yes I’m trying to be cryptic, is it working?)

War is terrible

horrible, very bad, no good.

Don’t see it.  I saw it opening weekend, didn’t check reviews.  I figured, how can they mess this up?  The guy from Transporter, Jet Li, an action movie…. great right?  WRONG.

It’s not an action movie.  It’s not a Jet Li movie.  It’s not a martial arts movie.  There are some lame car chase scenes, and there’s no real show down between the two of them.  (For the poor souls out there who have seen it, yes there is one show down, but c’mon, that was like watching 2 random guys in a bar fight, and it wasn’t very good.)

I like action movies.  I’m not going to bother pointing out some of the plot holes, because that’s not what most action movies care about.  This was NOT an action movie.  Avoid!

zero stars/ four stars.

Tuttle Macaroni Grill

I live in Columbus, OH.  So my restaurant reviews are typically going to be from here.  I am not a huge fan of chains, but some of them I like.  Generally I like Macaroni Grill, but I go there maybe 4-5 times a year.  Service at this one was baaad this week, so I may not go again.

They seat us quickly (good sign), but then our waitress never shows.  We waited 10 minutes, no shit.  Two other couples sat down after us, and got at least water and bread.  Nicely done.  It was also a little cold.  (WTF is it with restaurants and corporate offices wanting it to feel like 60 degrees inside when it’s 85 outside?)  So we got our food to go.

The food was actually decent, what we expected.  (Mushroom ravioli, bruschetta, and chicken parm)  So I’d say 3/4.  But the service was 0.5/4.  They get 0.5 because the people we did speak with (2 hostesses and take out order guy) were all very polite and friendly.

Children of Men

Good movie.  I’d say 3.5/4 actually.  Kept me on the edge of my seat with the constant action.  But their luck was a little unbelievable and the birth was just ridiculous.  (Yea right, giving birth takes 30 seconds of pushing??)  Definitely liked the references to our increasingly facist world, in terms of the Homeland Security bullshit and all of that.

Bonus points for not killing Kee.  Isn’t it funny the title is Children of Men, when if children belong to any gender it’s women?  (Not to get all Sarah Connor on your ass, but really.)

Now I know what you’re thinking, 3.5/4, she must be an easy reviewer.  Actually no.  But as it turns out I am starting with a movie I just saw, and happened to really like.