Yearly Archives: 2007

Twin Cities

What if Google Bought St. Paul’s Ford Plant?

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Now here’s a lovely little proposal: Google Should Buy Ford’s Twin Cities Assembly Plant. The Ford plant has cranked out Ranger pickup trucks but is closing in 2008. Ford’s departure will open up a huge chunk of real estate in a pretty pricey area of St. Paul. Plus it’s river-front property (well, close enough–our trails and a parkway get river-front dibs, all from atop the bluffs of course).

The only downside to the bid to Google is that it doesn’t sound like the hydro-electric plant is part of the sale. This article from the Star Trib makes it sound like the power plant is a separate sale from the assembly plant. Which would be too bad for Google. Some clean energy would be a nice little feather in their ‘don’t be evil’ hat.

I just love the idea of Google in St. Paul. How cool would that be? (link via MNSpeak)

Personal Pics

Old Skool Family Pics

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I just uploaded a ton of family pics to my Flickr account. I ransacked my parents’ pictures the last time were back and borrowed a few. Or 80. We did the same thing at Abby’s house and I wanted to get more of my family. I also realized how few pictures I have of my grandparents and my family. So I mostly went for pictures of my grandparents and my family, which gives a nice range of Hendricks family photos throughout the years.

A few of my favorites include:

There’s really too many I could talk about, but somebody might slip on some nostalgia and hurt themselves.

Business & Marketing, Sexuality, Society

Is PETA’s ‘State of the Union Undressed’ Porn?

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PETA's State of the Union UndressedHave you heard what the folks at PETA are up to? Being a parent and needing to think about responsible parent type things, I’m trying to figure out what they’re thinking. I don’t normally, or um, ever, link to porn, but it’s a necessary evil of discussing what they’re doing, so here we go.

They put together the State of the Union Undressed (WARNING: Link contains full frontal nudity), a video spoofing the state of the union speech featuring a woman touting PETA’s accomplishments while she strips–and she takes it all off.

Now I know PETA is a little out there. I like animals as much as the next guy, and can sympathize with their cause, but I also recognize they go a little overboard. This would be a good example of ‘a little overboard’. I’m trying to figure out how this plan could have seemed like a good idea.

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Blogging

Rebooting My Blog

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Well, I started redesiging my blog today. It’s actually less of a redesign and more of a ‘throw it at the wall and see what sticks.’ I added a new plug-in to show Flickr photos in the header (yes, we say goodbye to the fun, randomally loading pictures. It was too much work to add new ones) and tested that a bit to make sure it worked, but this morning I just went nuts and threw a few things together to mess with the layout.

It’s not a drastic change, but the header is vastly different and you can say goodbye to the left sidebar (I added it primarly for ad space, but I don’t need it and that location wasn’t that effective, so it went). I’m still toying with some ideas, but for the moment I’m finished. So if you see anything goofy, please speak up. I’m not exactly doing error-checking or taking a look on multiple browsers. This is my personal blog and I’m just too busy to care about that stuff.

We’ll see if the name ‘thoughts’ still sticks, or if gravity and the churn of time slowly peel it from the wall. I was thinking of maybe calling it Frank.

Domicile

Selling Our House: One Month

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Our house has been on the market for 31 days. We’ve had 19 showings and two open houses.

Weary doesn’t begin to cover it.

But today we’ve received an offer. And there’s potential for a second offer.

We’re preparing to dance in the streets.

We’re entering the negotiating phase right now, which is a little wild. It’s hard to believe that literally thousands of dollars are being tossed back and forth as the offers and counter-offers fly. I try not to think about that.

Update: We settled on an offer last night and now it’s just pending inspection!

Business & Marketing, Music

Fall Out Boy & the Record Industry’s Botched Incentives

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So Steve Jobs threw down the gauntlet and said that digital rights management (DRM, the digital copyright protection that keeps anyone from buying a song from iTunes and giving it to everyone) is a requirement of the record companies and if they’d be willing to get rid of it, Apple would drop it in a heartbeat. In one smooth step Jobs redirected any ill will towards Apple for the cumbersome DRM to the feet of the record labels.

I comment on this because in his argument Jobs points out that the vast majority of music are sold with no DRM whatsoever (CDs). And while CD sales are declining, it doesn’t appear that this lack of copyright protection is bringing down the industry–nor are the record labels moving to add DRM to CDs (perhaps because every attempt has made them look foolish).

So while we wait for the record labels to realize that draconian rules about sharing music don’t work, they have other solutions. Like the latest Fall Out Boy CD, Infinity on High.

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Daily Grind

This is How Smart I Am

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Last Thursday I decided to start waking up early and taking Mazie for a walk. She’s hyper and needs the energy release and as a sedentary mouse-jockey any amount of exercise is good for me.

Last Thursday also happened to be the beginning of below zero weather in Minnesota. “Arctic” is the new favorite word among weather people and newcasters.

Today I finally put on long underwear before my sub-zero walk with Mazie. So I’m either that immune to Minnesota cold or I’m stupid.

But I’m not stupid enough to go outside in my pajamas in sub-zero weather to smoke a cigarette, like my neighbor did this morning. That’s quite a habit.

Blogging

My Blog Needs a Reboot

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I’m frustrated with blogging right now. I had a few months of lackadaisical posting and now that I’m getting back on the wagon I’m frustrated. I don’t know if it’s the design or the format or what. But I need a change.

After reading the interview with Jason Kottke the other day and drooling over his blog design, I stumbled across this line:

“Tools are important. So is the format. It’s not as important as what people use them for, but tools and formats shape the environment in which they are used.”

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