The biggest reason I’m annoyed with Netflix and Disney would be their constant marketing to me, one of their paying customers — though I’m certainly not the only one. Netflix’s offense is constant direct mailers asking me to join their service. Disney, on the other hand, seems to think that the best way to sell Blu-ray DVDs is by advertising on Blu-ray DVDs — nevermind the fact that I obviously have heard of Blu-ray due to the fact that I’m viewing a Blu-ray DVD on a Blu-ray DVD player.

Right now these companies are spending a lot of time, effort, and money on trying to convince me to spend money to join their service or buy their product. It seems to me, they would probably be better off putting that marketing to use elsewhere, so they might get new customers — usually the goal of marketing.

Offer something useful

If you’re going to market to me, and I’m already one of your paying customers, give me something I can use. A two week free trial for joining is no benefit to me when I’m already a member paying a monthly fee. Instead, offer something I can use like a plan upgrade for a month for being a loyal customer.

As for the advertising on Blu-ray DVDs, it would be easier to show those commercials on TV instead of adding another couple minutes to the time before I can actually watch the movie I’ve rented or purchased. Since the company has already made money off of me, use the marketing to gain more customers and let me enjoy my movie experience.

Let me preface this by letting you know that I’m not particularly a fan of direct marketing. I understand it works for a lot of people but I’m not usually one of those people. Alright, moving on.

Your marketing has done it’s job. It has gotten me to become a paying customer. This is good, for both of us. You’re making money off of me and I’m getting some benefit out of your service. Now that we have a relationship, you might be thinking of starting a direct marketing campaign, offering me, and other customers, upgrades or additional services. Again, this is a good thing as I’ll get more use out of your new services and you’ll potentially make more money from me.

On the other hand, if you’re direct marketing campaign is offering nothing more than a free trial for 2-4 weeks, why do you think I would be interested? Should I cancel my membership and use the free trial? Are you suggesting that maybe my money isn’t good enough and you’d rather I use your service for free, 2-4 weeks at a time? Or do you just want to piss me off and waste some of that cash I’m sending your way.

In this day and age, one such as myself might think that you would consider merging your marketing database with your current customer database. Your customers are already advertisements for your company so why take a chance at losing them over such a trivial thing?

Maybe it’s just that you’re using a separate company to handle the direct marketing campaigns. Ok, that is a little different. As I understand it, campaigns are designed to hit separate neighborhoods on rolling schedules. Would it be that hard to create a list of exceptions? You wouldn’t have to give the names of the customers they shouldn’t deliver to but you could at least ask that their addresses be removed.

If you could consider implementing a system that would take care of this, myself and few thousand trees would be a little happier.

Sincerely,
Mike Stickel

Obviously I could hop on the bandwagon with the most momentum and grab myself a Blu-ray DVD player. The question then becomes, which player? Playstation 3 is the likeliest option because I don’t want to pay $350+ for a standalone Blu-ray DVD player. Another nice thing about the PS3 is online firmware updates. When new specs for updated discs are released, the ability to watch them will just be a “short” update away. Also, I’d have the option to play PS3 exclusive games if/when they come out, should the desire strike me.

On the other hand, I don’t even play my xbox360 enough. Sure, I don’t have to play games on the PS3 but it’s a little weird controlling a movie with a video game controller. Sony’s PS3 uses bluetooth for wireless communication, so I’d also have to buy a separate remote if I don’t want to use the controller. This goes against my ultimate goal of reducing the amount of remotes I use.

My other option would be to grab an AppleTV and skip the hard disc medium altogether. Why jump on the current bandwagon when I can leap ahead to the next one coming, right? I wouldn’t have to worry about the space DVD cases take up, and renting titles would be easier than running to Blockbuster and faster than waiting for Netflix.

Unfortunately the current selection of HD titles on iTunes is a little small right now. There’s also the pesky 30-day-after-DVD-release waiting period for all “on demand”/AppleTV rentals, making it a little unpleasant. The biggest drawback, for me at least, is the lack of special features. I love that stuff. Gag reels, commentaries, behind the scenes featurettes, keep ‘em coming! Maybe additional video/features will be available with iTunes rentals at some point but right now it’s not an option.

One option I don’t want to consider is to just wait. See what unfolds over the coming months and make a decision then. But what do I do in the meantime? I just got a new HD TV and I really want to watch all sorts of awesome HD content. Damn you world, why must you torture me so.

Well, as it turns out it’s a great thing during those periods when I don’t buy anything I don’t need. Generally it tends to go bad after a month or so though — hence the purpose of this post. My gadget lust has been building up for quite a while now and something had to give. Disregarding all logic and common sense, I recklessly went to Best Buy last weekend and picked up a sweet new toy for myself. Here it is in all it’s glowing glory.

The choice was between the 46-inch Samsung and the 46-inch Sharp Aquos. Both weighed in at the same price and both carried the same contrast ratio; which I’m told is the usual differentiator. Knowing one of my friends has a Samsung and another has a Sharp I was a little torn. Why did I choose one over the other? Nadia, the kind and pretty saleswoman helping me out, made an off-hand comment that she preferred the Samsung because it has better sound if you don’t have a system in place yet; which I don’t. Sold.

After spending the weekend watching various forms of entertainment — standard def. TV, HD TV, 720p TV torrents, iTunes Music Store movie rentals (standard def. because I don’t have an AppleTV yet), and HD-DVDs — I’m extremely happy with the new addition. However, this has also caused the floodgates to open.

Now that I have an awesome new TV, I want to play awesome content on that TV. I want to have the full experience. I need better sound! What’s the big deal? I know next to nothing about quality sound systems. I’ve had out of the box systems before and it was nice but I want something a little more this time around. And now I’m asking for your help. Are you a home theatre audiophile? Do you know what it takes to build a kick ass audio experience for movie watching? Can you help me?

Now that the actual working out part is getting a little easier — the weight isn’t easy, just the decision to go to the gym is — the big hurdle seems to be waking up on time. With an hour long commute to work, and my preference of working out in the morning, it’s important for me to get up early and give myself enough time to workout, shower, eat, and get to work. Given all that my goal is to get up around 6:15am. After two weeks of setting the alarm for that time it’s still a challenge every day. This is something I need to work on.

Overall I’m really happy with the progress I’ve made thus far. I had a few slips during the first week, where I had some “treats” when I probably shouldn’t have, but it’s getting much easier as time goes on. I’ve also decided to stick pretty closely to my meal plan on Sunday — which is my free day to eat whatever I want.

Concerning the weekly measurements, I think I’m going to hold off this time around. I will say that if my initial measurements were correct I’ve lost approximately 30% body fat. That seems like a large number after two weeks so I’m somewhat skeptical I measured myself properly. Regardless, I’m just going to roll with it since I’m feeling a lot better now than I was then.

Last year, and for the last half of 2006, I was on a mission to live a healthier lifestyle. It was working too. I started making better choices at mealtime, I was exercising regularly, and I had a great daily schedule/routine worked out, then I moved to California.

Living out here is a total shift from what I was doing in Pennsylvania. I’m surrounded by a larger group of physically accessible friends — my friends in PA are awesome, I just didn’t have many — and there is simply more going on in San Francisco than rural PA. This has played hovac on my old routine.

Last week I really started putting more thought into getting back to the healthier lifestyle I used to lead. In fact, after 6 or so months of not living it, I’m longing for it. Starting next week I will be getting back to it. I’d like to rope a few friends into living healthier as well so at least I have some company and outside influence to push myself.

While watching TV last night, I sat down and took some measurements — I don’t weigh myself because muscle is heavier than fat, among other reasons. I took measurements of my neck, chest, bicep (AKA, the pythons), abs (if you can call them that), and thigh. Using a formula I was given by a friend, I also calculated my body fat percentage. Here are the results:

• Neck: 15.5″
• Chest: 40.25″
• Bicep: 12″
• Abs: 38″
• Thigh: 21″
• Total body fat: 59%

That was a hard pill to swallow and it hurt a little bit on the inside. But that’s the point of this, to motivate myself. Starting on Monday, January 21st, 2008 I am going to be eating healthier, going to the gym in the morning, and doing my best to get a good night’s sleep during the week. Each week I’ll be taking measurements and most likely every month or so I’ll be taking progress pictures. As far as blogging my progress I’m not sure what I’ll do. I do know that I won’t be posting my progress pictures right away. Possibly down the road I will, but I’m not quite comfortable enough doing that yet.

For finally getting motivated, I have to thank James Mathias and Colin Devroe. James is a constant inspriration to me through his own journey to a healthier lifestyle (he’ll even be talking about it at SXSW ‘08). Colin, Chris, and I were the orginators of “The Diet” and while Colin (Chris as well, I believe) has basically kept up with it, I certainly have not. Seeing him Twitter about going to basketball is a constant reminder that I need to get into gear, again.

Alright, enough talk. Time to get my schedule figured out and decide which gym I’ll be going to.

I finally made the decision to start looking at places back in late August. Unfortunately during that time students were still piling in for the new school year and, it seemed, so was everyone else. While searching through Craigslist I kept seeing the same apartments/lofts being listed over and over again. When I noticed a new listing I would often go to the viewing and see the same people I had seen at the last open house/viewing. That got old, quickly.

After 3 weeks of dealing with this, I decided to stop looking. I kept telling myself, and other people, that I was still looking when in fact I had pretty much stopped. I needed some time away from all the hoopla. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, I finally realized I was doing a lot of talk and no walk.

Getting back to Craigslist was actually much more pleasant this time around. There were new apartments listed, they were in better locations, and I wasn’t crabby. I had created a shortlist of 3 places to look at. The first was a nice loft with a full kitchen, the second a decent space in a more questionable area, and the third I didn’t even get to view — after getting to the apartment I had to call the realtor myself in order to find out it had already been rented.

All this made my decision pretty easy and I applied for the loft that day. The entire process was pretty smooth too, I found out a couple hours later that I was approved and signed the lease that night.

So, for anyone that has my current address and wants my new one, direct message me on Twitter, email me, or send me an instant message.

A Little History

For as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to ride motorcycles. I’ve always made excuse after excuse and wouldn’t take the motorcycle training course. Well, the time has come where I have absolutely not excuses. So I got myself signed up, took the class, and passed the evaluations.

The next step was actually getting my M1 endorsement, so I could actually ride bikes on the road. To be honest, I was a little worried, about as worried as I was when I took my C class license — so I could drive a car — when my Canadian license expired. After reading through the DMV handbook last weekend I hit up the Santa Clara DMV last Tuesday. It was a pretty smooth process, I managed to only guess wrong on three questions.

Back to This Weekend

With license in hand, safety gear loaded in the trunk, and a couple friends I started looking for motorcycles. First stop was Mission Motorcycles. I’d looked online and they had a couple used Kawasaki Ninjas — buying new didn’t really appeal to me, being a first-time rider and all.

Teresa was an incredible help at Mission Motorcycles. She laid it all out for me and was great to talk to. If I hadn’t noticed SF Moto had a couple used Ninja’s I would have bought right then and there. I wanted to make sure I got the best deal so a quick trip to SF Moto was in order.

Once we arrived, Noelle — I hope I’m spelling that correctly — greeted us and took us to the last used Ninja in stock. As it turns out, it was the same year and colour as the bike at Mission Motorcycles. The only difference was mileage, with the advantage going to Mission Motorcycles in that regard. After some deft negotiating the advantage was clearly at SF Moto.

About 20 minutes later I became the proud owner of this:

My new 2006 Kawasaki Ninja 500R. It has about 3,000 miles on it and looks like it’s in great shape.

Unfortunately it was raining cats and dogs when I purchased my new baby so I couldn’t ride it home. Now I have to wait until Tuesday to pick up my new toy. I’m already itching to get on my bike so the next couple days may end up being pure torture. I wonder who I can convince to take some time off Tuesday afternoon and give me a ride to the city.

Check out the plugin.

I also finally got around to making a little projects page. My hope is that I can store all my little projects here in one nice repository. Whether that happens or not is left to be seen, but it’s always nice to have goals.

Version 0.5 includes adds the option to include the post excerpt in the random list of posts and is available for download. I’ve been told that it doesn’t work with WP 2.3 yet but that will be tonight’s task. That is all. Back to your regularly scheduled program.