This week marks the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album. And to celebrate it, the surviving band members released a deluxe remastered reissue of the landmark album, complete with b-sides, rarities, live tracks and demos.
Bands do this all the time, mainly to squeeze out additional bucks from their fans, and often it’s not worth it. Who really needs to hear reissues of Def Leppard albums not titled “Pyromania” and “Hysteria,” after all?
But “Nevermind” is a different story. For many, like me, the album is the soundtrack for our youth. I was a junior in high school when it was released, 16 years old and about to turn 17. An awkward nonathlete with plenty of acne, I spent hours each day listening to my favorite rock albums, as the music allowed me to escape from the crappiness of the world.
Before “Nevermind,” many of my favorite bands and artists were those I saw on MTV, back when it actually played music (a bit of a cliché phrase now, but there’s a lot of truth in it). This meant I listened to a lot of Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row, AC/DC, Poison and Aerosmith – all bands I still like to this day, but all of which often focused their attention on drugs, money and girls.
I remember spending the entire summer waiting for Guns N’ Roses to release “Use Your Illusion 1” and “Use Your Illusion 2,” two long-delayed albums I figured would be the release of the decade. They finally came out on Sept. 17, 1991, and seemed every bit as good as I hoped them to be.
One week later, Nirvana released “Nevermind,” to little fanfare. This three-piece Seattle, Wash., band wasn’t known to a mass national audience, as its first album, “Bleach,” was more of an underground punk album on an independent label, Sub Pop. I knew nothing about the band and the album upon its release.
At the time of its release, though, MTV started playing a video from the album, which was released by Geffen Records, the same label that had just released Guns N’ Roses’ two new albums. The video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was murky, dark and fairly simple. The band, led by Kurt Cobain, performed the song in a high school gym for a younger audience on a set of bleachers.
Something about the video, and the song, struck a chord with viewers, as it slowly became one of the station’s most requested videos. I remember watching it a few times, barely able to interpret the lyrics, and thinking this was different. After a few more times, I went out and bought the album.
The rest of the album was much like the first single. The lyrics were often incomprehensible, but there was something about each song that was memorable. It was as though someone had managed to make The Beatles a punk rock band with John Bonham at the drums. The songs were instantly catching, but at the same time completely distant. They all begged for repeated listens.
And so I listened, many and many times over again. Within a couple of weeks, I wrote a review for my high school newspaper, long before much of the national media had even realized Nirvana was the next big thing. I don’t have a copy of my review, but I remember praising the heck out of it and telling fellow classmates they needed to get it.
By January, the album made it to the top of the charts, kicking Michael Jackson’s new album off its perch, much to the surprise of everyone. Thirty million worldwide album sales later, it’s become a classic generation-defining album that still influences music today.
Kurt Cobain couldn’t handle the success, and sadly took his own life in 1994 after releasing just one more album, “In Utero.” Some say his suicide has helped the legacy of the band, although I would disagree. The music speaks for itself.
People who disagree should take a look at another band still making music, U2, which will also release a 20th anniversary deluxe edition of one of their landmark albums, “Actung Baby,” next month. This album came out more than a decade after the band’s first album, and after releasing other great albums. The original lineup is still intact, and tragedy has not helped make the band a legend. A decade later the band would release another great album, “All that You Can’t Leave Behind,” proving Nirvana could have had the potential to be beyond great.
We’ll never know, but at least we have “Nevermind” to enjoy. Deluxe version and all.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Sept. 30, 2011.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Amazon.com could make an entire generation less skeptical
I can now officially proclaim my love for Amazon.com. I liked it well enough before, but after becoming a college student again, I realize my like had become love.
Prior to enrolling in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, I used Amazon mainly to order items I couldn’t find elsewhere. Items like an Indiana Jones outfit for my son or a hard to find book for myself. I also took advantage of some of the site’s daily deals no store could ever beat. For example, on Black Friday last year I ordered a couple of Playstation 3 video games for less than $8 each, whereas in the store they were each more than $30.
But I wasn’t an Amazon junkie, unlike some other people I know. I’m not a fan of waiting for items to arrive in the mail, even if it only takes a week or so.
This probably stems from the days of my youth when I had to wait four to six weeks for anything ordered by mail to arrive. I remember ordering an Emperor Palpatine “Return of the Jedi” figure after collecting the necessary UPC codes to get it free, and then checking the mail every day for literally two months for it to arrive. And don’t get my started on the Columbia House cassette (yes cassettes, and not CDs) club and the wait involved with that. I prefer getting something I want from a store where it’s essentially same-day delivery.
As I’ve gotten older, though, my patience has increased, right along with delivery times. So ordering something by mail isn’t the horrible thing it once was to me. And now it’s gotten to the point of love.
That’s because I saved a whole lot of money ordering one of the textbooks I needed for one of my classes through Amazon.com. When I went to the university bookstore to get the text, my mouth dropped when I saw the price – $90. Fourteen years during my undergraduate studies, textbooks at most were $60.
Knowing another option existed, I went home and fired up Amazon. The book I needed was available, at an even more mind-numbing cost of $120. But looking closely, I noticed that was the price for a new book. Used copies were available for as low as $14.
That couldn’t be right, I thought. Just $14. No way. Life can’t be that easy. There must be some sort of catch.
There wasn’t. I hesitantly put in my order for the book, and received confirmation I would receive the book sometime between Sept. 22 and Oct. 1, which was later than I hoped, but much better than paying $90.
Fortunately, Amazon’s predicted shipping date was wrong, as I received it on Sept. 8, one day after my first class and in time to use it for the next week.
I would have probably finished my undergraduate degree debt free if Amazon.com had been around back then. I remember paying $300 to $500 a semester for books, some of which it seemed as though the professors didn’t bother to have us read.
Even more upsetting was the pittance of money I got back when selling them back to the bookstore. “This edition won’t be used next semester, so we’re only paying $3 for it,” the bookstore person would say about a $50 book. For poor college students, this was a huge scam that allowed us to see how the real world operated. It’s probably the biggest reason my entire generation is so skeptical.
Hopefully kids in the current generation won’t be so skeptical. They don’t have to pay high textbook fees if they don’t want. Although they might still have to deal with professors who make them buy books they’ll never need to touch.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Sept. 23, 2011.
Prior to enrolling in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, I used Amazon mainly to order items I couldn’t find elsewhere. Items like an Indiana Jones outfit for my son or a hard to find book for myself. I also took advantage of some of the site’s daily deals no store could ever beat. For example, on Black Friday last year I ordered a couple of Playstation 3 video games for less than $8 each, whereas in the store they were each more than $30.
But I wasn’t an Amazon junkie, unlike some other people I know. I’m not a fan of waiting for items to arrive in the mail, even if it only takes a week or so.
This probably stems from the days of my youth when I had to wait four to six weeks for anything ordered by mail to arrive. I remember ordering an Emperor Palpatine “Return of the Jedi” figure after collecting the necessary UPC codes to get it free, and then checking the mail every day for literally two months for it to arrive. And don’t get my started on the Columbia House cassette (yes cassettes, and not CDs) club and the wait involved with that. I prefer getting something I want from a store where it’s essentially same-day delivery.
As I’ve gotten older, though, my patience has increased, right along with delivery times. So ordering something by mail isn’t the horrible thing it once was to me. And now it’s gotten to the point of love.
That’s because I saved a whole lot of money ordering one of the textbooks I needed for one of my classes through Amazon.com. When I went to the university bookstore to get the text, my mouth dropped when I saw the price – $90. Fourteen years during my undergraduate studies, textbooks at most were $60.
Knowing another option existed, I went home and fired up Amazon. The book I needed was available, at an even more mind-numbing cost of $120. But looking closely, I noticed that was the price for a new book. Used copies were available for as low as $14.
That couldn’t be right, I thought. Just $14. No way. Life can’t be that easy. There must be some sort of catch.
There wasn’t. I hesitantly put in my order for the book, and received confirmation I would receive the book sometime between Sept. 22 and Oct. 1, which was later than I hoped, but much better than paying $90.
Fortunately, Amazon’s predicted shipping date was wrong, as I received it on Sept. 8, one day after my first class and in time to use it for the next week.
I would have probably finished my undergraduate degree debt free if Amazon.com had been around back then. I remember paying $300 to $500 a semester for books, some of which it seemed as though the professors didn’t bother to have us read.
Even more upsetting was the pittance of money I got back when selling them back to the bookstore. “This edition won’t be used next semester, so we’re only paying $3 for it,” the bookstore person would say about a $50 book. For poor college students, this was a huge scam that allowed us to see how the real world operated. It’s probably the biggest reason my entire generation is so skeptical.
Hopefully kids in the current generation won’t be so skeptical. They don’t have to pay high textbook fees if they don’t want. Although they might still have to deal with professors who make them buy books they’ll never need to touch.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Sept. 23, 2011.
Newspaper isn’t dying, contrary to what some might say
The word on the street for many years has been that the newspaper industry is dead. A steady stream of news stories has indicated newspapers are struggling, causing many of them to close or lay off people.
Those stories have always baffled the staff at The Gazette, because we haven’t had to close shop or lay off staff – and in fact we moved to a better location last year in an effort to become a bigger presence in the community. And in talking with others at weekly newspapers throughout the state, most of them are doing well, with some even thriving.
So reading an editorial titled “Where newspapers thrive” by Judy Muller in the Sept. 13, 2011, issue of the Los Angeles Times was particularly pleasing, because it confirmed what many of us already knew: “At a time when doomsayers are predicting the death of traditional journalism, thousands of small-town weeklies are doing just fine, thank you.”
She said the U.S. has 8,000 weekly papers, and their success is not being measured in conversations about the newspaper industry. Instead, the woes of big corporate daily newspapers are dominating the conversation because their profits keep declining and they haven’t figured out how to cope with a changing economy and what they claim is the changing attitudes of newspaper readers.
In reality, this attitude has remained the same over more than 200 years of newspaper readership: namely that people want to read about what affects them. At The Gazette, we concentrate on anything local, because if it’s local, there’s a good chance it’s going to affect the reader. This includes local government, local events, local obituaries, local sports, local features and local people.
Muller agrees with this assessment. “It’s more than a little ironic that small-town papers have been thriving by practicing what the mainstream media are now preaching,” she writes. “‘Hyper-localism,’ ‘citizen journalism,’ ‘advocacy journalism’ – these are some of the latest buzzwords of the profession. But the concepts, without the fancy names, have been around for ages in small-town newspapers.”
To prove her point, she cites some statistics from a National Newspaper Association survey that said more than three-quarters of respondents said they read most or all of a local newspaper every week, and a full 94 percent said they paid for their papers.
Based on feedback we receive from readers, we know they are looking at everything, including the crossword puzzle on the classified page, as some have said it’s too difficult.
And we’ll continue to focus on local news. I’ve said many times before our biggest problem is finding enough room for the content we do have. Because our page numbers are based on the amount of ads we sell each week, we often have to hold news items until later weeks. For most of the summer, I’ve had to hold “College Capsules,” because other items have taken more precedence.
Having said that, again I’ll reiterate the more ads people purchase, the more local news we can print. And judging by this confirmation that readers love their weekly newspapers, advertisers should be inclined to purchase space to promote their products and services because more than likely readers will notice it, unlike some other sources they may purchase advertising from.
Muller also mentions weekly newspapers are less inclined to put content on the Internet because they know it makes readers less likely to purchase a paper. Take a look at our website. We don’t put much on it, because we know this to be true.
Just as we already knew the newspaper industry wasn’t dying.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Sept. 16, 2011.
Those stories have always baffled the staff at The Gazette, because we haven’t had to close shop or lay off staff – and in fact we moved to a better location last year in an effort to become a bigger presence in the community. And in talking with others at weekly newspapers throughout the state, most of them are doing well, with some even thriving.
So reading an editorial titled “Where newspapers thrive” by Judy Muller in the Sept. 13, 2011, issue of the Los Angeles Times was particularly pleasing, because it confirmed what many of us already knew: “At a time when doomsayers are predicting the death of traditional journalism, thousands of small-town weeklies are doing just fine, thank you.”
She said the U.S. has 8,000 weekly papers, and their success is not being measured in conversations about the newspaper industry. Instead, the woes of big corporate daily newspapers are dominating the conversation because their profits keep declining and they haven’t figured out how to cope with a changing economy and what they claim is the changing attitudes of newspaper readers.
In reality, this attitude has remained the same over more than 200 years of newspaper readership: namely that people want to read about what affects them. At The Gazette, we concentrate on anything local, because if it’s local, there’s a good chance it’s going to affect the reader. This includes local government, local events, local obituaries, local sports, local features and local people.
Muller agrees with this assessment. “It’s more than a little ironic that small-town papers have been thriving by practicing what the mainstream media are now preaching,” she writes. “‘Hyper-localism,’ ‘citizen journalism,’ ‘advocacy journalism’ – these are some of the latest buzzwords of the profession. But the concepts, without the fancy names, have been around for ages in small-town newspapers.”
To prove her point, she cites some statistics from a National Newspaper Association survey that said more than three-quarters of respondents said they read most or all of a local newspaper every week, and a full 94 percent said they paid for their papers.
Based on feedback we receive from readers, we know they are looking at everything, including the crossword puzzle on the classified page, as some have said it’s too difficult.
And we’ll continue to focus on local news. I’ve said many times before our biggest problem is finding enough room for the content we do have. Because our page numbers are based on the amount of ads we sell each week, we often have to hold news items until later weeks. For most of the summer, I’ve had to hold “College Capsules,” because other items have taken more precedence.
Having said that, again I’ll reiterate the more ads people purchase, the more local news we can print. And judging by this confirmation that readers love their weekly newspapers, advertisers should be inclined to purchase space to promote their products and services because more than likely readers will notice it, unlike some other sources they may purchase advertising from.
Muller also mentions weekly newspapers are less inclined to put content on the Internet because they know it makes readers less likely to purchase a paper. Take a look at our website. We don’t put much on it, because we know this to be true.
Just as we already knew the newspaper industry wasn’t dying.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Sept. 16, 2011.
Back to school isn’t just for school-aged children
Call me Rodney Dangerfield, because I’m going “Back to School.”
After years of toying around with the notion of getting a master’s degree, and hoping my schedule would open up for me to do so easily, I came to the realization that would never happen and I should just go for it.
Inspired by my wife, Jennifer, who made it work for her over the past two years in getting a master of education degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stout (UW-Stout), despite a busy schedule, I submitted my application to the Department of Communications at UW-Stevens Point (UW-SP) just two weeks ago. Working with impressive speed, officials from UW-SP notified me just one week later that I was in. Registering for classes just days before they began, I was still asking co-workers where certain buildings at the university were located. Call it orientation via co-worker.
It happened so quickly that I haven’t even had a chance to tell my mother. She’s going to read about my new endeavor when she opens the paper Friday, and I’m sure she’ll call asking why I hadn’t told her. Here’s the answer: I wanted to make sure I got in and registered before telling anybody. It would be too embarrassing to tell people and then get a rejection letter.
Because everything happened so quickly, I’ve run into a few snafus that the brilliant staff at UW-SP has easily handled.
The first occurred when I paid my $100 registration fee. I didn’t know it at the time, but my payment was registered to someone else – another Scott Steuck who is taking classes at UW-SP. Although I’ve never met this Scott Steuck, I’ve written about him before, as I had an issue in registering for a library card downtown. And now he was unknowingly taking my money.
But when registering for classes, I noticed the student ID number on my registration receipt did not match the one on my class schedule. I pointed this out to the registration person, and she discovered the error and immediately had it corrected.
The other snafu occurred when I tried to register for my second class and the computer told me “undergraduate” students were not allowed to take it. It’s been 14 years since I’ve been an undergraduate, so that was a little confusing to me. When I checked with registration, I learned I was a first-semester freshman, and not a graduate student. While I’d love the opportunity to go back to 1993 and relive my undergraduate days, especially knowing all I know now, that wasn’t something I was willing to do. Again, though, the registration person immediately corrected the issue.
Now the only issues I have to deal with are balancing a full-time work schedule with a part-time school schedule, and a more than full-time family schedule. The last schedule takes precedence over the other two, but both Jennifer and my 6-year-old son, Braden, know I’m going to have to sacrifice some of my free time I usually spent with them on school.
I told Braden that I hopefully won’t forget about him. He said if I do, he’ll slap my face and wave his hand in front of my eyes. Baffled, I asked why. “Because that’s what you do when someone can’t remember something.”
He’s right, making me feel a little foolish that I’m learning something from a young boy when I’m supposed to be learning bigger things at school.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Sept. 9, 2011.
After years of toying around with the notion of getting a master’s degree, and hoping my schedule would open up for me to do so easily, I came to the realization that would never happen and I should just go for it.
Inspired by my wife, Jennifer, who made it work for her over the past two years in getting a master of education degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stout (UW-Stout), despite a busy schedule, I submitted my application to the Department of Communications at UW-Stevens Point (UW-SP) just two weeks ago. Working with impressive speed, officials from UW-SP notified me just one week later that I was in. Registering for classes just days before they began, I was still asking co-workers where certain buildings at the university were located. Call it orientation via co-worker.
It happened so quickly that I haven’t even had a chance to tell my mother. She’s going to read about my new endeavor when she opens the paper Friday, and I’m sure she’ll call asking why I hadn’t told her. Here’s the answer: I wanted to make sure I got in and registered before telling anybody. It would be too embarrassing to tell people and then get a rejection letter.
Because everything happened so quickly, I’ve run into a few snafus that the brilliant staff at UW-SP has easily handled.
The first occurred when I paid my $100 registration fee. I didn’t know it at the time, but my payment was registered to someone else – another Scott Steuck who is taking classes at UW-SP. Although I’ve never met this Scott Steuck, I’ve written about him before, as I had an issue in registering for a library card downtown. And now he was unknowingly taking my money.
But when registering for classes, I noticed the student ID number on my registration receipt did not match the one on my class schedule. I pointed this out to the registration person, and she discovered the error and immediately had it corrected.
The other snafu occurred when I tried to register for my second class and the computer told me “undergraduate” students were not allowed to take it. It’s been 14 years since I’ve been an undergraduate, so that was a little confusing to me. When I checked with registration, I learned I was a first-semester freshman, and not a graduate student. While I’d love the opportunity to go back to 1993 and relive my undergraduate days, especially knowing all I know now, that wasn’t something I was willing to do. Again, though, the registration person immediately corrected the issue.
Now the only issues I have to deal with are balancing a full-time work schedule with a part-time school schedule, and a more than full-time family schedule. The last schedule takes precedence over the other two, but both Jennifer and my 6-year-old son, Braden, know I’m going to have to sacrifice some of my free time I usually spent with them on school.
I told Braden that I hopefully won’t forget about him. He said if I do, he’ll slap my face and wave his hand in front of my eyes. Baffled, I asked why. “Because that’s what you do when someone can’t remember something.”
He’s right, making me feel a little foolish that I’m learning something from a young boy when I’m supposed to be learning bigger things at school.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Sept. 9, 2011.
Larry David may be world’s best ‘social assassin’
The best comedy currently on television is “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” an HBO show written and starring Larry David, the co-creator of “Seinfeld.”
The premise of the show is simple. David, who plays a funnier and looser version of himself, interacts with people in his life, many of them celebrities, and often gets in trouble because he has a habit of saying and doing the wrong thing.
Although fictional, it’s often hard to tell because of the high number of real people involved with it, the fact David is essentially playing himself and the improvisational comedy that is used for nearly all of the dialogue. Each script for the show is only four to eight pages long – essentially just an outline of what needs to happen – and the actors improvise their own dialogue, most of which is funny and some of which is amusingly awkward.
Nearing the end of its eighth season, “Curb” is firing all of its cylinders and easily having its best season. I say that because each episode has been funnier than anything else that’s been on TV this year. But I could have said that after seeing just the third episode of the season in which David’s manager, Jeff Greene (played by Jeff Garlin), coined the phrase “social assassin” to describe David.
“Seinfeld” was well known for coining popular catchphrases: “Soup Nazi,” “shrinkage,” “re-gifter,” “master of your domain,” “spongeworthy,” “yada, yada, yada,” “close talker” and “not that there’s anything wrong with that,” to name just a few of the most popular ones.
“Social assassin” may be my favorite one, though, and it singlehandedly makes this season excellent.
Greene calls Larry a social assassin after another character said he likes how Larry “says what everyone’s thinking.”
“You know what you are?” Greene said to David upon hearing this description of David. “You’re a social assassin.”
It’s a phrase that soon leads to some of his friends hiring him to tell people they love the things they’re afraid to say themselves to these people. One guy hires him to tell his wife saying “LOL” (acronym for “laugh out loud”) instead of just laughing is not funny, and Greene’s daughter hires him to tell her mother, the loud and obnoxious Susie Greene (the hilarious Susie Essman), that nobody can stand it when she says “ahhhh” after every sip she takes of a beverage.
David completes his assassin missions, but as usual, he says or does the wrong thing again and makes a complete mess of the situation, making himself worse off than he was beforehand.
Despite the mishaps, I’d still hire him for a social assassin mission or two. I know a few people with annoying habits I’d like to tell them to stop, but I’m too nice to actually tell them. Having somebody else – somebody not so nice like David – would be a convenient way to maybe put an end to those habits.
For example, I know someone who doesn’t turn off the bright lights of his vehicle for oncoming traffic. I’ve tried a few times, but it doesn’t seem to register, and getting too bold about it is something I’m not comfortable doing. But I’m sure David would have no problem with it. “Hey man, you should put your dim lights on for oncoming traffic. It’s not only the polite thing to do, but it’s the safe thing, as you could cause an accident if you blind the other driver,” he would probably say, most likely following it up with something so rude the driver would keep the bright lights on just out of spite.
If I’m there to stop David from saying the rude thing, then the mission may be accomplished.
I’ve thought about becoming a social assassin myself, but I don’t have that gene in me that would allow me to say something without feeling bad about how the other person feels. For now, I’ll just have to watch David do it for a few more weeks on his brilliant show.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Sept. 2, 2011.
The premise of the show is simple. David, who plays a funnier and looser version of himself, interacts with people in his life, many of them celebrities, and often gets in trouble because he has a habit of saying and doing the wrong thing.
Although fictional, it’s often hard to tell because of the high number of real people involved with it, the fact David is essentially playing himself and the improvisational comedy that is used for nearly all of the dialogue. Each script for the show is only four to eight pages long – essentially just an outline of what needs to happen – and the actors improvise their own dialogue, most of which is funny and some of which is amusingly awkward.
Nearing the end of its eighth season, “Curb” is firing all of its cylinders and easily having its best season. I say that because each episode has been funnier than anything else that’s been on TV this year. But I could have said that after seeing just the third episode of the season in which David’s manager, Jeff Greene (played by Jeff Garlin), coined the phrase “social assassin” to describe David.
“Seinfeld” was well known for coining popular catchphrases: “Soup Nazi,” “shrinkage,” “re-gifter,” “master of your domain,” “spongeworthy,” “yada, yada, yada,” “close talker” and “not that there’s anything wrong with that,” to name just a few of the most popular ones.
“Social assassin” may be my favorite one, though, and it singlehandedly makes this season excellent.
Greene calls Larry a social assassin after another character said he likes how Larry “says what everyone’s thinking.”
“You know what you are?” Greene said to David upon hearing this description of David. “You’re a social assassin.”
It’s a phrase that soon leads to some of his friends hiring him to tell people they love the things they’re afraid to say themselves to these people. One guy hires him to tell his wife saying “LOL” (acronym for “laugh out loud”) instead of just laughing is not funny, and Greene’s daughter hires him to tell her mother, the loud and obnoxious Susie Greene (the hilarious Susie Essman), that nobody can stand it when she says “ahhhh” after every sip she takes of a beverage.
David completes his assassin missions, but as usual, he says or does the wrong thing again and makes a complete mess of the situation, making himself worse off than he was beforehand.
Despite the mishaps, I’d still hire him for a social assassin mission or two. I know a few people with annoying habits I’d like to tell them to stop, but I’m too nice to actually tell them. Having somebody else – somebody not so nice like David – would be a convenient way to maybe put an end to those habits.
For example, I know someone who doesn’t turn off the bright lights of his vehicle for oncoming traffic. I’ve tried a few times, but it doesn’t seem to register, and getting too bold about it is something I’m not comfortable doing. But I’m sure David would have no problem with it. “Hey man, you should put your dim lights on for oncoming traffic. It’s not only the polite thing to do, but it’s the safe thing, as you could cause an accident if you blind the other driver,” he would probably say, most likely following it up with something so rude the driver would keep the bright lights on just out of spite.
If I’m there to stop David from saying the rude thing, then the mission may be accomplished.
I’ve thought about becoming a social assassin myself, but I don’t have that gene in me that would allow me to say something without feeling bad about how the other person feels. For now, I’ll just have to watch David do it for a few more weeks on his brilliant show.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Sept. 2, 2011.
Impartial journalists need to vent once in awhile
As a journalist, I’m often required to stay impartial on many subjects. The only way to write a fair and balanced story about something in which people may have opposing viewpoints on is to simply not have an opinion about the matter, and see it from the viewpoint of both sides.
For the most part, this isn’t difficult. Oftentimes, the matter doesn’t affect me personally, so I have no reason to choose a side. When it does affect me, I do my best to keep an open mind, which has always worked for me.
I know it works, because on some of the most controversial topics in which people choose sides – usually something involving politics – I’ve received calls from people on both sides of the issue complaining my writing was more biased toward the other side. When neither side is happy, then I know I’m doing my job in a fair and balanced manner.
But one issue in Stevens Point is bugging me, and I’m going to voice an opinion. It’s an issue I’m not aware of anyone complaining about, and I’m sure it’s not one the Stevens Point Common Council or any of the appropriate committees is discussing. It has nothing to do with the Downtown Square, CenterPoint MarketPlace, school funding or local municipal budgets.
It has everything to do with traffic lights in this city.
In my opinion, the traffic lights aren’t timed right. It seems like I hit red lights more often than green lights, and a continuous drive is nearly impossible.
Maybe it’s the routes I take from home to work and back. From home, I get onto Division Street from North Point Drive, and then take Division to Main Street, where I encounter every red light along the way. I take Main Street to Clark Street where I park, once again hitting every red light.
Going home, I travel down Clark to Division, and from Division I go to North Point Drive, once again hitting every red light.
I wouldn’t complain if this was all I knew, but until three months ago, I was living in Plover where I encountered a whole different batch of traffic lights. The lights in Stevens Point frustrated me, but not to the extent the ones on my current route annoy me now, but once I got to Whiting and Plover, it was smooth sailing. That’s probably because those municipalities use sensors to control their lights, allowing for the more traveled roads – such as Post Road – to have a more continuous flow. I never appreciated this until moving to Stevens Point.
I know this is a petty thing to complain about, and most people will probably tell me I should just be more patient. They will say other issues are more pressing.
And I’ll agree with them. It’s likely the city has done studies on this, and the timed traffic lights are perfectly suited to get the best traffic flow. It’s possible if I was traveling straight from Interstate 39 onto Division that I would hit every light perfectly.
I’d probably be less likely to complain, too, if it didn’t seem as though every vehicle I was following was a Ford Focus in which the driver took his or her time slowly accelerating from every red light like a Sunday driver with no care in the world.
Maybe I need to take that attitude, too. After all, why should I be in a hurry to go to work? It’s just a job, and getting there two minutes earlier won’t result in me getting a lot more done during the day.
I could get my morning coffee a few minutes earlier, though. Nothing wrong with some caffeine that will make me more impatient on the ride home at lunch.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Aug. 26, 2011.
For the most part, this isn’t difficult. Oftentimes, the matter doesn’t affect me personally, so I have no reason to choose a side. When it does affect me, I do my best to keep an open mind, which has always worked for me.
I know it works, because on some of the most controversial topics in which people choose sides – usually something involving politics – I’ve received calls from people on both sides of the issue complaining my writing was more biased toward the other side. When neither side is happy, then I know I’m doing my job in a fair and balanced manner.
But one issue in Stevens Point is bugging me, and I’m going to voice an opinion. It’s an issue I’m not aware of anyone complaining about, and I’m sure it’s not one the Stevens Point Common Council or any of the appropriate committees is discussing. It has nothing to do with the Downtown Square, CenterPoint MarketPlace, school funding or local municipal budgets.
It has everything to do with traffic lights in this city.
In my opinion, the traffic lights aren’t timed right. It seems like I hit red lights more often than green lights, and a continuous drive is nearly impossible.
Maybe it’s the routes I take from home to work and back. From home, I get onto Division Street from North Point Drive, and then take Division to Main Street, where I encounter every red light along the way. I take Main Street to Clark Street where I park, once again hitting every red light.
Going home, I travel down Clark to Division, and from Division I go to North Point Drive, once again hitting every red light.
I wouldn’t complain if this was all I knew, but until three months ago, I was living in Plover where I encountered a whole different batch of traffic lights. The lights in Stevens Point frustrated me, but not to the extent the ones on my current route annoy me now, but once I got to Whiting and Plover, it was smooth sailing. That’s probably because those municipalities use sensors to control their lights, allowing for the more traveled roads – such as Post Road – to have a more continuous flow. I never appreciated this until moving to Stevens Point.
I know this is a petty thing to complain about, and most people will probably tell me I should just be more patient. They will say other issues are more pressing.
And I’ll agree with them. It’s likely the city has done studies on this, and the timed traffic lights are perfectly suited to get the best traffic flow. It’s possible if I was traveling straight from Interstate 39 onto Division that I would hit every light perfectly.
I’d probably be less likely to complain, too, if it didn’t seem as though every vehicle I was following was a Ford Focus in which the driver took his or her time slowly accelerating from every red light like a Sunday driver with no care in the world.
Maybe I need to take that attitude, too. After all, why should I be in a hurry to go to work? It’s just a job, and getting there two minutes earlier won’t result in me getting a lot more done during the day.
I could get my morning coffee a few minutes earlier, though. Nothing wrong with some caffeine that will make me more impatient on the ride home at lunch.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Aug. 26, 2011.
Video game inspires late start to golfing leisure pursuit
Although golfing has always had a spot in the corner of my eye, it’s something I’ve never really pursued. Until now, thanks to a Playstation 3 game and a friend who’s been itching to go golfing again.
The video game, “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters,” utilizes Playstation Move controls for a realistic golfing experience. Players swing and putt just like they would on a real golf course, with the Move Eye camera registering every nuance of every move a golfer makes.
It’s realistic because I pretty much double bogeyed and tripled bogeyed every hole I played for the first few rounds of golf. And actually, I’d probably do worse on a real golf course.
The more I play the game, though, the better I get. As I learn to focus on the fake ball at my feet, my drives have become straighter, often landing on fairways 250 yards away, and my putts are improving to the point where sometimes it only takes two or three to get the ball in the hole.
I’ve gotten to the point where I’m actually parring, and occasionally birdieing, most holes. In fact, I won an amateur tournament in Arizona with a score of five over par, which was much better than the second-place golfer who had a score of 10 over.
Granted, it wasn’t a real tournament, but anything to boost one’s ego is always great. That’s probably why video games are so popular, because they offer an unlimited amount of such ego boosts.
When I screw up, I get angry at the Playstation Move controller, as well as my television. I’ve managed to curb the swear words, but that doesn’t stop me from huffing out some steam. I imagine on a real golf course, some of that steam will come in the form of a few swear words, as much as I hate to admit that.
My real life golf experience consists mainly of hitting balls at a driving range. In college, my friends and I often visited the driving range, because swinging at balls was a great way to forget about the stress of school. We would have golfed, but all of us were too poor to afford that experience.
I’ve only golfed one round in my entire life. A friend of mine from Wautoma took me out about seven years ago to learn the game. It was fun, and frustrating, but for some reason I never returned to the links.
I wasn’t sure I ever would, but the Playstation 3 game has inspired me. I knew my friend Brian liked to golf, but he hasn’t really been able to because none of his friends here do. So I sent him an email, asking if he would like to go golfing sometime, and serve as a teacher to me.
He was more than happy to oblige, and now we’re trying to arrange our schedules to hit one of this area’s many beautiful courses. I live just a quarter-mile away from SentryWorld, so we’ll probably start there. It’ll be like playing in my front yard.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Aug. 19, 2011.
The video game, “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters,” utilizes Playstation Move controls for a realistic golfing experience. Players swing and putt just like they would on a real golf course, with the Move Eye camera registering every nuance of every move a golfer makes.
It’s realistic because I pretty much double bogeyed and tripled bogeyed every hole I played for the first few rounds of golf. And actually, I’d probably do worse on a real golf course.
The more I play the game, though, the better I get. As I learn to focus on the fake ball at my feet, my drives have become straighter, often landing on fairways 250 yards away, and my putts are improving to the point where sometimes it only takes two or three to get the ball in the hole.
I’ve gotten to the point where I’m actually parring, and occasionally birdieing, most holes. In fact, I won an amateur tournament in Arizona with a score of five over par, which was much better than the second-place golfer who had a score of 10 over.
Granted, it wasn’t a real tournament, but anything to boost one’s ego is always great. That’s probably why video games are so popular, because they offer an unlimited amount of such ego boosts.
When I screw up, I get angry at the Playstation Move controller, as well as my television. I’ve managed to curb the swear words, but that doesn’t stop me from huffing out some steam. I imagine on a real golf course, some of that steam will come in the form of a few swear words, as much as I hate to admit that.
My real life golf experience consists mainly of hitting balls at a driving range. In college, my friends and I often visited the driving range, because swinging at balls was a great way to forget about the stress of school. We would have golfed, but all of us were too poor to afford that experience.
I’ve only golfed one round in my entire life. A friend of mine from Wautoma took me out about seven years ago to learn the game. It was fun, and frustrating, but for some reason I never returned to the links.
I wasn’t sure I ever would, but the Playstation 3 game has inspired me. I knew my friend Brian liked to golf, but he hasn’t really been able to because none of his friends here do. So I sent him an email, asking if he would like to go golfing sometime, and serve as a teacher to me.
He was more than happy to oblige, and now we’re trying to arrange our schedules to hit one of this area’s many beautiful courses. I live just a quarter-mile away from SentryWorld, so we’ll probably start there. It’ll be like playing in my front yard.
****
Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, Aug. 19, 2011.
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