Month: April 2007

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Why I hate the NBA

I always want to keep coming back to the NBA, but every time that I come back, I realize why I hate the NBA.
The officiating.

The officials always seem to favor the team in the lead and the team that is favored.   And they always seem to swallow their whistles when the game is on-the-line and the non-favored team is trailing.  They just can’t get any calls, even though they might be mugged going to the hoop.

Until the NBA improves the consistency of their officiating, I won’t watch and a lot of people won’t watch.

No wonder their ratings are hurting.

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New York Times Reader

Well in my inspection of using an online reader for the New York Times, I stumbled upon the New York Times Reader.
This has been in Beta and is coming out of it soon. It may already be out of it.

This is really cool. It takes the paper and continuously updates it. If your device does not have internet access, you can read the latest version it downloaded. It is pretty simple.

It automatically scales to your screen size and it is quite easy to navigate between sections and pages. I think this will revolutionize newspapers and how they are read.

But there is one problem. The New York Times is charging $14.95 a month after 30 days. This is ridiculous. They sure know how to kill a good thing.

The New York Times is still living in the print world. If they want people to use it and make money, they need to charge a lot less. They would get a lot more subscribers.

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240 Union a decent place for lunch

Well I kept up my part of the promise and headed out today to support Project Angel Heart and you can’t get much better than 240 Union.
240 Union has always been one of the best restaurants in Denver and it is located in Lakewood, a western suburb of Denver. The atmoshphere is always wonderful and so is the food.

Today I had the open faced reuben sandwich. If you have been reading this blog, you know I can’t resist a good reuben.

Well this reuben was different and that is probably the only thing I found with it. Part of the reuben sandwich that I like is sauerkraut. Well the reuben at 240 Union just had cole slaw and I would say that this is a drawback.

Overall it was decent, but it was not one of my favorites. The chips that were served with it were incredible and had an interesting cut to them.

The bread that was brought to the table was delicious. Especially the foccacia bread. It rivals some of the best that I have ever had.

It was a great lunch and 240 Union held their own again.

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What is happening with customer service

I am wondering what is happening to customer service in this country. Where has it gone?
We decided to take the kids to McDonald’s (Zuni and 128th) because of various errands this evening, don’t worry it is not a regular thing. Well the play area was a disaster and there was spilled soft drinks on the floor. The tables were dirty and it was not a great place to eat. The same in the main dining room. I even had to clean the table that we ate at. It was disgusting.

Then I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some groceries and get some lunch meat. Well the Safeway near our house decided to close their deli at 7 pm because someone was sick. It is crazy. They couldn’t find someone to run the deli? It is crazy and a great inconvenience to work all day and go grocery shopping and not be able to get what you want because they didn’t schedule enough people.

Customer service has disappeared in this country. It is amazing to me how companies can do this to their customers. It never used to be like this. I wish that they would get with it.

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Where Is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip?

I am awaiting NBC‘s decision on when Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip will return.
For some reason, NBC has placed Studio 60 on hiatus because it hasn’t been getting the ratings. But if you add in the statistics of people who are recording it on their DVR and watching it later versus live, the numbers are a lot higher. That doesn’t even take into account the number of people who are buying it on iTunes.

In the meantime, NBC is running programming that is horrible and not even worth watching. Need I mention the show The Real Wedding Crashers airing tomorrow night?

For the most part I have stopped watching NBC except for a few shows. Here is the stu

Bring back Studio 60. According to a post in TV Squad, Studio 60 is still filming and will have 22 episodes in the can. If you don’t want to bring it back, put up the rest of the episodes on iTunes so I can purchase them.

It was one of the best shows on television and NBC’s ratings will only go lower if this is gone. TV Squad also had a good post on why Studio 60 won’t be brought back and 30 Rock will be.

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New York Times Electronic Publication

Well I just signed up for the New York Times Electronic Edition. It was free for seven days and then is going to become a version that charges
In the process, it kept having page failures and it created two accounts for me. But in their account maintenance page, I must call a phone number in order to cancel. The New York Times uses a service called NewsStand. I would stay away from it if I were you.

This is ridiculous. I should be able to cancel my subscription/account online without having to call someone.

Finally, I am not impressed with the service that they. It allows me to download to my computer and browse offline, but I want it in PDF, not whatever weird form that they have.

Improve the service and I may come back.

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Amendment 41 Fix Coming…Maybe

The Colorado legislature has been posturing over the fixes to Amendment 41, the new Colorado ethics law that was passed last November. But it may be close to developing a fix for all the problems that this amendment has caused.
The problem has been in the Senate. They have had the House bills for a while, but have been sitting on the legislation for over a month. The bill authorizing the five-member panel has been passed by both houses and the House has passed SB-210 that clarifies what is covered in the ban, but it also causes some controversy.

Mainly it sets up conditions in which a charge may be dismissed. In her blog, Representative Morgan Carroll states that SB-210 “MANDATES the dismissal of anyone complaint under Amendment 41 that does not allege (1) breach of the public trust (2) for private gain for money (3) offered for the purpose to influence (4) an official act.”

According to Carroll the bill, “…creates many new standards that would make it virtually impossible to ever bring any complaint forward under Amendment, let alone prevail on its merits.”

The bill passed by a large margin, but goes back to the Senate because Rep Romanoff pushed through an amendment that would delete any portion of the legislatures plan if the Colorado Supreme Court deems it illegal.

It seems that the legislature is working to find legal work-arounds to this amendment so they can keep accepting the gifts.

For those you don’t know, the Amendment 41 prohibits gifts for state and local employees plus their families over $50. The problem is that this has been interpreted as also prohibiting scholarships, inheritances, and personal gifts.

I personally voted against this Amendment. Not that I don’t think we need ethics in government, but because this was a constitutional amendment. This type of governance belongs as a statute. Because it was passed as an amendment, it has created a lot of problems and I see many problems and possibly court challenges in the future.

So the legislature is trying to clear it up and the Senate is dragging their feet. If these two bills don’t get it done in time, some concerned citizens have gathered enough signatures to place this on the fall ballot.

You can read more at the Denver Post: Amend. 41 endgame may be in sight