Archive for April, 2010

Learning to Drive

Oh wow, once again my neighbor’s sixteen-year-old son managed to hit the empty garbage cans at the end of their driveway.

He backed up, hit the empty cans with the rear bumper, and then pulled forward to analyze the situation.  The future scientist got out of the car to check the distance to the empty cans before climbing back behind the wheel.  Common sense would have said to just wheel the empty cans down the driveway (a whopping 30 feet, slightly downhill) and put them by the garage where they belong.

But no, he didn’t do that.

The kid backed up again, this time slightly missing the cans with the rear bumper.  But when turning into the street, he still smacked one of the cans with the front corner of the car.  He hit the can so hard it nearly tipped over.

At least this time he didn’t scrape the bumper on the curb on the opposite side of the street.  There are plenty of scratch marks on it from his previous attempts.

These people, and their kids, are total morons.

Subaru Commercials — What Are They Telling Us?

After seeing many, many, many Subaru car commercials on TV, sometimes it’s a little bit difficult trying to determine just who the company is trying to market the car to these days.

It’s almost like the commercials are classifying the Subaru drivers in a class above everybody else, making them part of a niche.  Kind of like “I drive a Subaru and you don’t, so you’ll never understand.”

I’ve got nothing against the cars.  It’s just that the commercials tend to give conflicting information.

Let’s take a look at a few of them and see.

This first commercial still plays today.  It starts with a kid running around in a super hero costume and playing outside.

Nothing wrong there. Read more…

“Destination Truth” – Last Three Episodes

Season Three of Destination Truth ended last week with an episode showing the team first looking for spirits on the mysterious Easter Island and then looking for a large bird thought to be extinct.

Actually, the last three episodes followed the same pattern:  Each first half had the team hunting for ghosts with marginal, inconclusive results followed by proving a cryptozoological or extinct creature not to exist.

In other words, boring.  Just reality television that focuses on exotic locations and cultures.

So were those last three episodes a total waste?

No, certainly not.  Let’s take a look at the non-paranormal part of each episode and see what happened. Read more…

Mississippi Tornado Outbreak Aftermath

Yesterday we saw just how dangerous the weather can become at times as deadly tornadoes cut a path directly across the great state of Mississippi.

In all, there were fifty-four reports of tornadoes from yesterday’s thunderstorms — thirty-two of them in Mississippi.  Unfortunately, it’s being reported that ten people were killed including three children.  Yazoo City in the western part of the state and Choctaw County in the eastern part were hit especially hard.  There was even a report of a tornado a couple miles north of Starkville, home to my alma mater, Mississippi State University.

At least the severe weather wasn’t a surprise. Read more…

Tornado Watches Galore

Looks like this will be a long and interesting night for those living in the lower Mississippi River Valley and parts of Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.

The National Weather Service has issued about half a dozen tornado watches throughout the area.

What we’re seeing here is a combination of a strengthening  upper-level storm system combined with a cold front heading through the central and southern part of the country, running smack into a nice and warm, moist and unstable air mass. Read more…

Grandmother Needing Medical Alert Device – UPDATE

A few weeks ago I wrote an article called “Intentionally Misleading the Customers” in which I addressed an issue that I had while searching for a product for my grandmother.

I’m rather pleased to report that we found a medical alert unit for her.  We went with the company LifeStation.  We ordered it for her online and she received the unit a few days later in the mail.  Word has it that she had it up and running in only a couple of minutes, and basic testing showed that she had coverage throughout her single floor house.

For anybody else who is interested in more information about medical alert units for seniors, I did find a really helpful website called SeniorMedicalAlert.info.  The site goes through the major companies offering medical units, lists differences between them, how to choose a unit, and even current prices and add-ons.  I didn’t realize just how many companies sold such a product.

We’re relieved that now she has a device that will automatically call a monitoring station should an urgent situation or emergency occur. Read more…

YoshiBlade (ceramic knife) – A Marketing Review

One of the more common TV marketing commercials is for the YoshiBlade (warning – the website does not work properly for people using Firefox!), a ceramic knife designed to be used in the kitchen.

Being claimed to be “the last knife you’ll ever need,” it turns out that the commercial and company website may be embellishing a little more than it should to sell the product.  In fact, parts of the commercial come close to outright lying to the customer.

Perhaps the biggest question is, is the YoshiBlade a scam?

These questions and more will be addressed in this detailed marketing review.

Slightly older  TV commercial for the YoshiBlade ceramic knife. Read more…

HD Vision Ultras (sunglasses) – A Marketing Review

Late last night I saw yet another TV commercial for the HD Vision Ultras sunglasses.  I can’t help but laugh at this ridiculous commercial and horrible attempt at marketing an obviously bad product.

The premise behind these sunglasses is fairly simple.  The orange tinting in the lens filters out the blue light, increasing the contrast and depth perception.  This is no different that wearing a yellow pair of glasses worn by hunters and shooters.  The only difference here is that this style is once again being marketed to the average person on the street.

An older commercial for HD Vision Ultras Read more…

April 15 – TAX DAY!

It’s time to gather your statements and run the numbers through your favorite income tax software, whether it’s software you purchased in a store or software provided by one of many online tax companies.  Or if you prefer, take your statements to an accountant and let him handle the dirty work.

Yes, the federal government is holding out its grimy hand, eagerly waiting for you to fork over your “fair” share of the tax burden, whether you want to or not.

I must say that the massive number of people turning out for the anti-tax, anti-government spending rallies has been nothing short of amazing.  These Tea Parties are picking up steam as more companies are bailed out by the federal government (mainly by us taxpayers), and as the government continues spending money like crazy in the name of stimulating the economy. Read more…

Spring Break 2010

It’s that time of the year again!

Today was the last day of school before spring break for here in the metro Atlanta area.  It’s time to head to the beach, to the theme parks, to Detroit, or wherever it is that families go for this event.

For me, I’ll take the land of orange trees, theme parks and the bright Florida sunshine.  It’s what my family has done for pretty much every spring break from second grade (the year we moved down here from Detroit) through junior year in high school.  And let me tell you, I really miss those days. Read more…

“Destination Truth” – The Jersey Devil and The Yeren

Last night’s new episode of Destination Truth brought the investigative team to New Jersey in the hunt for the legendary Jersey Devil.  The second half of the show had the team hunting for the Yeren in central China.

As a whole, this has been one of the better episodes for this half of the season, even if the team didn’t uncover any solid evidence into either creature’s proven existence.

The Jersey Devil:

The hunting in New Jersey for the Jersey Devil marked the third time that the team has searched for an American legend, the Swamp Ape in Florida and Thunderbird in Alaska being the previous two investigations.

The Jersey Devil

The legend of the Jersey Devil dates back to colonial times in America, but sightings and talk of the creature continues today. Read more…

RightSize (smoothies) free trial – A Marketing Review

Just a few minutes ago, I saw a commercial for the RightSize Health & Nutrition company.  Apparently the company ran a free promotion for a trail weight loss smoothie (or so it claims in the commercial), but because of such a high demand, the company ran out of products!

Wow!

Fortunately, and this is a big relief, they have more smoothies in stock, and if we act now (I’m talking about ordering NOW, not sitting around and thinking about it for a while), then we can take advantage of the trial offer again.  This is only a limited time only and they supposedly ran out of products before, so it’s time to go online and order the free trial.

This must have been a big deal since the CEO or somebody important in the company came out and apologized to us for running out of smoothies last time.  All we have to do is go online and order the free trial, only having to pay shipping and handling.  $18.71

Does that sound awesome or what?

The problem is that when we take a look at the website and the “free” trial, well, let’s hope you haven’t already hit the spending limit on your credit card.  In other words —– potential SCAM alert! Read more…