Midspot

I’m sure you have all seen the Dateline show “To Catch a Predator”. What I bet you haven’t seen is the chaos that erupted after the Texas edition of the show.

The guy that approved the show in Murphy, Texas, lost his job soon after the sting. The district attorney will not prosecute any of the men saying many of the cases were “tainted by the involvement of amateurs” and the whole thing just reeks of entrapment.

Some of the suspects never even showed up at the sting house after chatting with decoys online. One of them was Louis Conradt Jr., an assistant prosecutor from a neighboring county.

When police and the Dateline camera crew went knocking on his door to arrest him, Conradt shot and killed himself.

I bet you won’t see that footage on Dateline.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not siding with these pedophiles, but there is a difference between getting them put away and making a sitcom out of it.

What are your thoughts?

Technorati Tags: Dateline, To Catch a Predator, tv, pedophile

Is it just me or does this baby look like the reincarnation of Chris Farley?

The guy sent to execution that wanted to die laughing that I talked about yesterday, didn’t have much for a parting shot.

Read here for more.

What an idiot.

This man wants to die laughing. Yes, you read that right. A convicted murder, ordered to be put to death, wants to die laughing.

Where’s is your freaking remorse?

Here is a man that killed two elderly people, his own damn neighbors, in their own home in cold blood, and doesn’t have a bit of remorse.

What’s worse is that there are people sick enough in this country to send him jokes. That’s it, give this sicko some more attention to feed on. This is exactly why death by stoning and other violent means, should be legalized. Cruel and unusual punishment, ha! I bet his victims didn’t get to go out laughing, why give him the right?

Leave it to Digg, to have plenty of suggestions for his parting shot, this one my personal favorite:

“What is the deal with lethal injections? Why do they sterilize the needle? It’s not like you’re going to die again of infection.”
Crowd is silent.
“Tough crowd here tonight. You guys are killin’ me!”
Taps chair. “Hello, is this thing on?”

Technorati Tags: prison, death sentence, murderer, death

Wow, has it been a doozy couple of days! Funerals, traveling, spike in trouble tickets, spike in customer calls, virus incident at work, pool cleaning, lawn mowing, etc, etc, etc.

You get the idea. Have you ever had one of those runs where you think you will never catch up?

I hate days like that. It just seems like things are piling on faster than you can buzz through them. then all of a sudden order returns to the land of chaos.

I’ve always wondered how that happens. It just seems like out of the blue you get hit with requests from every angle for a few days and then peace.

Years ago I used to work at a gas station in a small town along the interstate about 40 miles from the state capitol. At least a few times a day you would go from complete ghost town to complete swarm.

Just goofy.

No customers at all and then lines 4 and 5 deep at every pump and the convenience store filled with people. We used to wonder how that always happened. It wasn’t at a certain time of the day (say everyday at 3:15 or 5:30). Just random.

I used to say it was because of the traffic lights in the capitol city letting a crowd of people onto the interstate at once or maybe because cars travel in packs on the interstate, but you never really see an entire pack of cars pull off the interstate at once.

We never did figure it out. But I have noticed that it applies to other areas of life. Like the last few days for me.

What do you think causes your “spike” in work/traffic/etc?

Technorati Tags: traffic, life

I have been asked a few times over the last few weeks if I am going to get an iPhone.

No.

Easy decision for me, as AT&T (the only dealer that will carry the iPhone so far) does not have service in my area.

Even if they did I would not purchase one. My Blackberry 8830 does everything I need at a fraction of the cost.

I would never buy the first rev of an Apple product. It’s always junk. Look at the first iMacs, the first iPods, the first iTV, etc, etc, etc.

Wait a few months people. Let someone else be the guinea pig. Let them get the quirks out and then buy the updated, more feature intense, revision two (or three).

Trust me. I’ve seen it a million times with Apple. The best time to buy is rev 2, or 3, or maybe even 4. The deal always gets sweeter for those that wait. (Updated iTV anyone?)

Technorati Tags: Apple, iTV, iPhone, release, AT&T

I am/will be attending a funeral out of town today and another out of town tomorrow.

Posting may be light…

But maybe not, you never know!

It is McQuade’s softball weekend this weekend here in Bismarck.

This is like one of the biggest softball tournaments in the US I’m told.

Here in little old Bismarck.

Yeah you guessed it, traffic from hell this weekend.

If you plan on doing anything around town this weekend, be prepared to wait in line at any store and watch out for drunken jocks on the roads!

On a more serious note, Scheels in the mall, is moving into the old Target store.

Guess which weekend they chose to close the store and move to their new location?

Yup, this weekend.

I wonder whose brilliant idea that was? Let’s take the busiest weekend of the year for sports and shut our doors.

Brilliant, freaking brilliant.

Technorati Tags: McQuades, softball, Scheels, sports

I’m starting to see this already!

Ever notice that the best blogs are written by people who either don’t have a day job (ie: they don’t work for Corporate America) or blog anonymously?

I think I figured out why today.

I have a lot of experiences that I would love to share here that are funny, witty, and sometimes downright hilarious. I also find interesting things in taboo subjects that almost get posted but then the draft gets deleted.

I self-censor myself sometimes harder than any employer would.

The reason being is that this blog will probably be a major part of my future resume whether I like it or not. More and more employers are Googling their future employee prospects before extending an offer. I don’t want something offensive on this blog to kill one of those offers.

I have also blogged anonymously at other URLs in the past, but it never gets the same tone of authenticity that transparency does.

Why am I even mentioning any of this?

Simple.

I read this article on Rob’s blog. I almost spit Diet Mountain Dew out of my nose! I have had experiences like that in the past but would never put them online for the fears listed above.

(BTW I talked with Rob yesterday over IM and he is a great guy just trying to be involved with the next great thing on the internet like the most of us!, I highly recommend his blog.)

Anyway, maybe my philosophy should change. Maybe I should post items like that to “keep it real”. Actually when I think about it, I don’t want to work at a company that would not hire me after reading a post like that.

I have experience with companies that are “stuffy” and it’s not fun. Too many good ideas get thrown out because they are “over the top” of accepted practices.

I don’t buy into that. Companies grow by being ahead of their market. Ahead of their times. Able to react quickly to the market. If they are going to be so tight and “stuffy” that spells disaster to me. Yes they may be stable for the time being, but they aren’t growing. They aren’t willing to take risks.

Look at Microsoft. I don’t see them as a major player in 20 years. Too big. Cannot move fast enough to meet the market. Google can. Not as much as before, but they are still ahead.

Everyone likes an underdog. Loyalty is going away.

Look at people from the baby boomers generation. They would go to the same bank they have done business with their entire life. I don’t. I go where I get the best rate. Small town banks are gone. No favors are extended for loyalty anymore. You are nothing but a number. Why make them rich? If a bank across town will save me interest, I’m there.

The next 50 years will be interesting. Customer loyalty has changed. Brand recognition is big, but for how long? Word of mouth is still king. If you can create buzz, you are in. Look at Apple, look at Google. They may not have the best product at the best price but they have one thing that Microsoft is losing fast: rapport with their customers.

Why has the iPod continued to outsell the Zune even though the Zune adds more features at a comparable price? Because it is not cool. Kids don’t want to do business with the geek in the commercials. They want to be cool, like the Apple guy.

Image is everything.