Archive for February, 2009

The Smell of Skunk

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

I never realized it until I was away from home for several years, but the area near my parents’ house in rural West Tennessee is full of skunks. I rarely see them alive but their smelly corpses frequently accompany the dashed lines on the windy roads.

And although they are somewhat shy and elusive, skunks are known to venture into yards where they startle, and subsequently spray, neighborhood dogs. My brother even got sprayed by a skunk once when he was camping out. Of course he brought himself inside and the whole house smelled like a skunk.

It turns out that some people can’t smell skunks at all. My wife is one of them. After several instances of running through some skunk stank while driving down the road, she kept saying she couldn’t smell that horrible funk that was pushing me to nausea. So she did some research and found out that one in one thousand people cannot smell a skunk. Go figure. I guess that explains a lot.

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Valentines for Dogs

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

I am not a fan of Valentine’s Day for the most part. It has always seemed like a “Hallmark Holiday” that pressures us to do a bunch of goofy stuff to prove that we love the ones we love. I like birthdays, Christmas and surprises. Since my wife’s birthday is pretty close to Valentine’s, I get a bit of a pass. But I still need to at least get a card.

I recently went shopping for Valentines cards and, aparently, most of the husbands out there have a great need to apologize for coming up short, not always being there or somehow being a skrewup. I checked out about 10 cards and 8 of them started with, “I might not always be the most…” or “I’m sorry that I’m…” Really? Is Valentines really just “get out of the dog house day”?

Personally, I grow my own flowers and I think it’s much nicer to bring those in as frequent surprises rather than having a one-time day of over-priced roses. Chocolate is a regular treat in our household. And if I’m in the dog house, I’m sure not going to wait for a Hallmark holiday to make ammends.

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Henderson Park Community Garden

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

After a few friendly gatherings, several trips to the proposed space, some donated time by professional landscapers and some good advice from a Dekalb County advocate, we finally turned in the proposal (thanks Susan!) for the Henderson Park Community Garden.

We should know something about the official granting of the park space in the next few weeks but in the meantime we will be planting some seeds and starting to accumulate supplies.

There are some 150+ gardens in the Atlanta area but none are currently in Tucker. So we will be the first. With any luck, we will be able to break ground for a spring planting and start building this community project.

Here is a picture of the proposed site:
Henderson Park Garden Site

Here is a picture of the lake and waterfall that are a part of Henderson Park:
Henderson Park Lake

Henderson Park Waterfall

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Yahoo Still Doesn’t Get It

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

I will always remember the day when I was at a conference in New York…I believe it was in 2003…and the Yahoo! speaker announced that they would be charging people to get into their directory and then, on top of that initial, yearly, $299 charge, they would also charge a per-click fee every time someone clicked a listing. Imagine that.

Luckily, people booed and that model never went forward.

So now when Yahoo! needs a some more cash, they don’t bother with silly announcements that could get booed. They just get right down to charging their customers. The fine print is in place, it’s all legal, so it must be all good. Oh, how I miss the corporate life and the wonderful decisions that come from a spreadsheet.

There is a reason I don’t advertise with Yahoo!. And I’m really glad I don’t. Because if I were a Yahoo! advertiser, it is likely that they would have already “optimized” my account, like they just did for so many unwitting other accounts, by adding keywords and distribution that results in more exposure, more clicks and higher costs with a complete disregard to relevance and transparency.

The fact that things are technically “legal” doesn’t make them right. There’s no wonder that Yahoo! continues to come up short in their quest to be the leader in online search. They just don’t seem to understand that customers are actually people.

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