Politics drive me mad…

Senator Stilskin: a Baby-Eater from Brady Fitzgerald on Vimeo.

It’s that time of year, when everyone you know on Facebook, where you work, in the grocery store – everybody everywhere – is suddenly a political analyst. I remember four years ago asking a friend where they got their news from. This person genuinely thought that one of the best places to get information was from the attack ads. Do you want to vote for a politician who is a cannabal? Really? You don’t want to listen to the speech the person actually gave, just selected, edited, and cropped sound bites that the other person is telling you was said. Is there any worse way to find out what a person is like? Even a person with the best intentions could still mix up the message – why not hear someone’s actual words?

I don’t know. It’s all just so over the top. And with new media, social media, the instant feedback from the internet – there is no time to pound away and send one message home as political candidate, you have to have something new to say every single day, because each day, everybody is hearing your message. It’s not like it was a few hundred years ago, when you had to campaign all around the country. Now you’re campaigning nationwide every day! Quotes get put on the news, ads are put on Youtube, and statistics are misrepresented and outright lied about in stupid pictures that get retweeted and shared a few hundred thousand times over.

I’m a geek. A geek who loves music, and video games; hockey, and football; whiskey, and cold beer. I have strong convictions on social and fiscal policies. But I just know that this year, more than any in the past, is going to be ugly. The attack ads are going to really turn me off to this election season, and we’re a long way from the finish line. I’m hoping to keep my head low, but you can’t even turn off the TV this year. It’s already started on radio, every social network, and even YouTube’s pre-roll ads. It just makes me sad that so many influenced by the negative campaign ads, rather than listening to the messages of the candidates themselves. Know where someomne stands, know how they’ve voted in the past, and vote for your candidate of choice – not the candidate who bashed the other guy the most. Republican or Democrat: I just hope we all come out of this one alive.

2013 is going to be an expensive year…


original photo by: Christian Fischer

You may have heard something about this drought we’re going through? We’re getting warned that the price of corn has increased by 38% already, and though others expect it to climb, some are saying it’ll only result in a few cents more being paid at the grocery store. I couldn’t disagree more.

I’m not an economist. I’m not a farmer. But I have common sense. Corn is everywhere. It’s in breakfast cereals, sodas, fruit juices, snack foods, potato chips – and when not used as some sort of high fructose corn syrup, then it may be used as feed for chicken, pork, and other livestock. Corn is only one of the crops that’s suffering this year, you can count on many, may more vegetables suffering as “berry season” appraoches. I haven’t had a good watermelon yet, this year. Everything is about to get more expensive.

It’s going to be gradual. Infact, this is the time of year when livestock herds are going up for auction most frequently, so you might see prices drop over the next few weeks and months. But if you’re the kind of person who likes to have a Christmas ham? You’ll be paying more than last year. Go ahead and watch prices – early next year on in to next summer, I expect prices to rise. Substantially. That $2+ bottle of cola won’t just be in over-priced vending machines anymore, and everything from Dorito’s, to hamburgers, to heads of lettuce are all going to get more expensive. Pick your favorite product, watch its price over the next 12 months. Chart it in Excel, I dare you. It’s about to get pricey, and you should at least plan ahead a little right now. Prices won’t double, but when the price of every single thing you buy goes up, your wallet will take a punch. Be ready.

Will Xbox Music see more cross promotion?

With the coming rebranding of the Zune marketplace to “Xbox Music,” am inclined to wonder if this will lead to even more cross promotion on the Xbox Live Marketplace.  Microsoft has been extremely good to the members of the Zune marketplace on Xbox Live by having weekly deals and discounts highlighted on the dashboard, and featuring artists and contests that could allow you to play a game or two with celebrities.  But what more would I hope to see?  A little bit of gamer-goodies. Continue reading “Will Xbox Music see more cross promotion?”