Craigergate

Poor Larry Craig.

The Senator from Idaho will announce his resignation on Saturday amid the "sex scandle" he tried to hide by pleading guilty rather than make a big story out of it.

Regardless of whether or not he is or is not gay is to me irrelavent. Before this stody broke a few days ago I had never heard of the way gay guys pick each other up in the bathroom. Frankly it scared me a little bit because I can imagine tapping my foot to the song in my head or to make it clear to someone that the stall was occupied. Apparently with Craig it involved slipping his foot into the adjacent stall and putting his hand palm up under the stall divider. That being sad if he didn't realize what he was doing its scary to think how quickly thigns unfolded for him then and are unraveling for him now.

What really concerns me is how this "sting" operation was carried out. It sure seems like entrapement to me. Setting people up out of nowhere is one thing but from what I have heard Craig was arrested without ever commiting a crime. It could have become a crime but what was going on between what could have been to concenting adults was not illegal.

Throw in his family values and the Democrats have a field day with it, which is unfortunate because nobody really wins in this case.

Now THAT being said, if Craig isn't gay and didn't do anythign wrong why would he plead guilty? I'd love to believe him but If you are accused of something like that especially if you are in a political position like him why plead out if you are innocent. The press will find out sooner or later. When you hear that a Senator made a plea deal without a lawyer, something just doesn't add up.

Another intersting thing to watch is how quickly the republican party is running from anything gay. This guy went from being a good ol boy to everybody's worst enemy in "one number two".

Keep your briefcase to yourself and your feet in your own stall.

Meeeechigan Football is here!

The countdown to kickoff ends in two days. As a life long Michigan fan, this, like any other year provides a lot of things to be excited about. The offense appears as though it will be able to put up big numbers anywhere and despite losing a lot on defense, the stage has been set for Morgan Trent, Tim Jamison and Terrance Taylor to really step it up.

Last year we were all introduced to the plans the U of M Regents approved for the stadium expansion and renovation. While there are plenty of "under the radar" improvements like more bathrooms, and slightly wider seats (nobody can fit in a seat now) the big excitement for me at least is the new exterior.

The stadiums highest extents will be significantly above the current stadium while maintaining the stadium's low profile feel. Begin constructed in essentially a ditch has made it possible for many of the 100,000 fans to be below ground level and has kept the stadiums appearance in concert with the surrounding land uses. If you put Autzen stadium or Neyland where Michigan Stadium lies, it would be more of an eyesore than a source of pride.

One of the things I am hoping will happen as part of the stadium renovation is that the acoustics will be improved. Michigan Stadium can't hold any sound in. The loudest part of the game is the PA announcer with the rather dry "Don't trash the big house". The video boards are nice but the stadium needs to be louder.

The quietest 100,000 people in the world, or some variation of the phrase is something we have all heard. I found a really interesting article regarding the issue and what we can all do to help the sound situation now. While the acoustic design of the stadium can help, if nobody is yelling, there is nothing to magnify.

Put the keys away

For those that for one reason or another haven't seen the new Michigan Stadium sketch ups check them out here

Life in the 12 items or less lane

I remember a few short years ago when the first U-scan check out lanes became popular at grocery stores. It was great; non-technically savvy people were scared of them for a while and it provided a fantastic way for the young and savvy to circumvent the old and meek.

What a difference a few years make.

Every year a larger percentage of checkout lanes are converted to U-scan. Someone however spread the word with the elderly that they too can use the U-scan lanes. Now, whenever I want to use a U-scan lane I inevitably end up behind a person who is one, most, or all of the following.

1. Old
2. buying fruit with no barcode
3. buying vegetables with no barcode
4. Cannot find the numbers on 2 or 3
5. Is paying with change
6. Doesn't speak english
7. Sets something on the scale with their bags
8. Doesn't take their receipt
9. Has 25 items
10. Has to look at 24 sides to find the barcode on a box with 6 sides.

And I know you have seen each and every one of the people described above.

I really hope that technology will advance enough to confuse the people that can't use the u-scan's quickly enough. Until then I might have to go back to the regular check out. Of course the regular checkout lanes are where you get the people who swear that the tag said that the comforter was $29.99 not $30.75. PRICE check!

Maybe I should give up on grocery shopping all together!

Brain vs. Beauty

It's hard to resist poking fun at poor Ms. Teen South Carolina for her answer to a socio-geographical question in front of a huge TV audience and a packed house in Pasadena.

Even when given a chance to answer the question and speak again in a courtesy interview with Matt Lauer, it became apparent that she is not the smartest South Carolinian out there- which is perfectly fine.

What I find so funny is that these pageants pretend as though brains really matter in their competitions. Perhaps this is because the organizers want to ensure that the title and its duties will be carried out to better the country and its youth.

That didn't seem to matter with Tara Conner.

When Miss Teen South Carolina was asked, "Recent polls have shown that 20% of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?", the unfortunately comical response below was given.

Ms. South Carolina: I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education, like such as in South Africa and the Iraq -- everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should... our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. -- or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future.

Go ahead, read it again, you know you want to, but it won't make any more sense the next time through.

What is so amazing is that being in the top five, after this answer she was awarded 3rd runner up which means someone was ranked below her after the answer. So again, if it doesn't even matter what the answer is...which it clearly does not, why ask?

If you are going to have a beauty pageant, have one, if you are going to play Jeopardy, get Ken Jennings. I don't want to see Ken Jennings in a nightgown and I don't want to see poor teenagers forced to answer questions they aren't prepared to answer.

Busting the Predatory Lending Myth

It's interesting that month after month we hear about large corporations and their double digit growth. The business economy in the USA is booming. Tax benefit programs and governments trying to prevent outsourcing to other countries are helping many businesses to be extremely profitable.

While many of the rich continue to grow richer in our great capitalistic society, conversely, many American families are being hit hard as the housing bubble's burst, turns their wallets inside out. What I find so amazing about this bubble bust and the resulting multiplicity of foreclosures is that it seems that nobody saw it coming.

The biggest cause of all these foreclosures isn't people losing jobs or taking pay cuts, it is the average American's misunderstanding of how to manage their finances. It's not that I don't sympathize with families going through such troubled times but I can't fathom entering into some of the mortgage agreements that these families have.

The late 90's and early 2000's brought lower interest rates for mortgages along with an increase in the types of mortgages available which made the American dream available to almost anyone that met minimum requirements.

Two things bother me about how this has unfolded one about the medias coverage and one about peoples expectations:

1. Placing the blame on "predatory lenders"

This isn't to say that there aren't real predatory lenders out there. There are those despicable that truly take advantage of people. However, a lender that provides legitimate options to qualified individuals are not predatory! The media doesn't seem to understand the difference. When adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) became popular it was perfectly clear that once the introductory rate expired that the rate would adjust UP. Sure there was talks that no one new for sure and that they could possibly adjust down but the writing was on the wall. I say this with confidence because it was clear to me and I was a young high school student without a real interest in real estate. Now as a homeowner, while an adjustable rate mortgage made it easier for me to afford my home, if I don't refinance or something happens with my income that is not GMAC's problem, nor should it be. Sympathy is nice, lending is business.

2. Bailing everyone out.

Once again the media cries foul if the Government doesn't step in with programs to protect those that have become less fortunate because of bad decisions. It's not that I am against bailing people out but you can't have that or expect it (New Orleans) unless you are willing to pay through taxes BEFORE the fact. Our society is so against higher taxes until something affects THEM or the people that have the ability to elect them and they need the money.

Remember there is a huge difference between PREDATORY and Subprime lenders. This is fast becoming a huge political issue and everyone is jumping in to save the people that can't make sound financial decisions.

Why Nicea?

As I relax on another beautiful Sunday afternoon I thought it approporiate to write about how this blog's name came to be. It's amazing how many blogs are written about how to write a blog and what to blog about. I have chosen a combination of topics, some about my life, some about my opinions and some about observations and reporting, like the piece I did on unredeemed gift card profits. I do hope you enjoy reading as much as I do writing.

But back to where the name came from.

The Council of Nicea (which is the modern spelling on Nicaea) was essentially a congress of Bishops from around the world in the year 325 in which crucial components of Christianity were quite literally "decided". The fact that church doctrine and canon was simply put to a vote has been interesting to me ever since I found out about the Gospel of Thomas and what was found at nag-hammadi.

I encourage you to read about the First Council of Nicea here. You also may be interested to read about what was found at http:Nag Hammadi in Egypt.

Moreso though I think of Nicea as a metaphor for opinion, which is what I give here. Therefore this blog includes lots of posts about things I have decided on for myself. Sure I include things about my day to day life, but Nicea, to me is about opinion and decision.

An FU from me to the Michigan Senate for SB 691

Its no secret that Michigan has a serious budget issue. Raising taxes is never popular but it seems like the only reasonable answer.

That being said....I can't explain how frustrated I am with Senators SANBORN, JELINEK, GILBERT, CROPSEY and GARCIA. They are proposing that not only all State employees, but any government agency or agency that receives any funding through state grants must pay atleast 15% of employer paid health care costs.

The state is estimating that this will save 400 million dollars. The problem is that all of that money comes out of the pockets for the very people that have made it there JOB to work for the state. The State is giving a virtual FU to the people that still care and work for it.

And you betcha, this affects me too. I have always said that while my job doesn't provide a huge salary, that my benefits are great. It's amazing how quickly these benefits are beginning to fade. What kills me about this whole thing is that unlike the State, the agency I work for is not going through a budget crisis right now and all this does is take money out of our pockets, it saves the State nothing. It's an excuse for my agency to throw the extra 1,000 or so dollars a year this will be per employee to some bullshit budget item like office products. This won't affect our budget by one dollar its just less money in a Michiganders pocket and more money going to Office motha fucking Depot.

A message to the senate. You want economic development, well you can kiss 400 million dollars of investment if you pass this bill. It's a cop out easy way to put YOUR burden on the very people that work for you.

I've included the excerpt of the bill language below:

A bill to limit a public employer's portion of the cost of health insurance benefits; and to provide for exceptions.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

Sec. 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
"public employer health insurance contribution act".

Sec. 3. As used in this act:

(a) "Health insurance" means employee medical, dental, or
optical benefits.

(b) "Public employer" means the state; a county, township, village, city, school district, or other political subdivision of the state; an authority; a public institution of higher education; or any other entity jointly created by 2 or more public employers.

Sec. 5. Except as provided in section 7, a public employer that offers health insurance to its employees shall pay no more than 85% of the premium or other cost of those benefits.

Sec. 7. If a collective bargaining agreement that is
inconsistent with section 5 is in effect for a group of employees of a public employer on the effective date of this act, the requirements of section 5 do not apply to that group of employees until the collective bargaining agreement expires. The requirements of section 5 apply to any extension or renewal of the agreement.

Sec. 9. The requirements of section 5 apply to all public
employees to the greatest extent consistent with constitutionally allocated powers.

Enacting section 1. This act takes effect January 1, 2009.

iPhone and Social Status

Today Matt and I went to Godaiko for sushi. We sat at the sushi bar and were greeted by the sushi chef. Shortly thereafter a gentleman was sat next to us. As he sat down he was sure to remind the chef that he knew his name with a "Hi Paul". Moments later he pulled out his shiny iPhone and started aimlessly scrolling through emails and perusing the internet. It didn't take more than a minute or two before "his plan" worked and the couple to his other side started inquiring about his toy.

In his admittedly striking thick Brit accent, he went into a story about how his wife used the company card to buy the phone, but that he in fact owned the company, and all three shared a "business laugh".



I was amazed at two things by their conversation. The first was just how proud this guy was of himself. He had an amazing way of speaking blahze, almost distant yet he manged to, in the matter of a few sentences convey that he owned a business, that it was extremely successful and that 500 dollars for an iPhone wasn't anything to even think of.

Secondly I was so amazed at how easy it was to buy his whole shpeal. Perhaps it was the accent, maybe it was phone and his tone but this guy completely captivated anything within earshot and it was so clear that everything he had been saying was true. What is most interesting to me about this was that if you remove only the iPhone from this experience. It wasn't an experience at all, it was just a guy with a loud voice bragging about some business that might not even exist.

I left the restaurant thinking, I have got to get me one of those!

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Toll Brothers

I talk a lot about how excited and anxious I am to move into a larger house. Recently its been difficult to think about because of how much value my home has lost over the last year. I talked to Amy about it and we have what sort of amounts to a plan. That is to get into our Toll Brothers home (or similar) by the time I am 30. Here's a picture of the one we toured that made us fall in love with TB. This home is about 2 miles from where we currently live.



From this picture it is difficult to tell how big the place is. While my place makes 1500 square feet seem small, this place makes 3200 square feet feel even bigger.

Every once in a while I email my "mortgage expert" who is my coworkers wife to get a feel for where we need to be to pull off a mortgage like this.

The subprime mortgage issues have scared regulators into tightening loan standards which previously were practically non-existent. I fear that this may affect us in a few years but there is still a lot going for us.

Dual incomes: This is the biggie. Aimers has been working hard and is set to finish school in April. When she gets a job our monthly income will skyrocket, even if she has to start low- thats what I did.

Credit: My credit remains extremely strong and Amy has been working like crazy to clear hers up, our thought is that in a few years hers should be high enough.

Savings: While actually coming up with a sizeable deposit may be difficult there will be money to show. While my job by no means pays like a...FED Job for example.... Our benefits include a retirement plan that right around the 5 year mark (lucky me) really starts to expand rather quickly, add to that savings, 457, and stocks and we should be close to having 20% of a Toll Bros home 'available'.

Hopefully there will still be sites available at the Saline Estates property in two and a half years but since they are already selling much of the property that seems unlikely. And hopefully when the time comes I can find a suitable renter or buyer willing to pay at least close to what I did for my place. Still plenty of time though.

So why the heck am I writing about this? Motivation a little. Putting it out there, announcing it to myself as the goal and reminding myself what has to happen to get there.

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Billions in unredeemed gift cards!

It's a great feeling to find a gift card that you had lost or forgot about but have you ever thought about what happens when cards go unused?. I started thinking about how great an idea gift cards are for the large corporations that use them. Gift cards are incredibly cheap to make, package and sell at stores. When you buy a gift card you are essentially fronting money for a purchase, accelerating the cash flow of the company. But what happened when that card is never redeemed? Free money for corporate America!

I started a little research by flipping through my Best Buy 2007 Fiscal Report. Best Buy realizes income from unredeemed gift cards two years after the card is purchased. At that time the likelihood of a card being redeemed is "remote". In fiscal year 2007 Best Buy realized $46 MILLION in unused gift cards. I started looking for information from several other companies and found some interesting information.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there are not any universally accepted accounting practices for unredeemed cards but in general retail companies determine a time when they no longer expect a card to be redeemed and then either at one time or based on a model they transfer the money from the liability column the the asset column, therefore realizing what is essentially free profit.

Here's some information that relates possible assets from unredeemed cards compared to some other company metrics. All financial information was taken from the company's most recent annual report.


Abercrombie and Fitch
3.3 Billion in total sales
65 Million in unsed gift cards.
88.1 Million shares outstanding
This means (ANF) has about 73.7 cents per share in earnings potential from unused cards.
Abercrombie and Fitch currently pays 70 cents per share per year in dividends

Kohls
1.1 Billion in total sales
15 Million in unused gift cards
322.6 million shares outstanding
This means Kohls has about 4.6 cents per share in earningspotential from unused cards.
Kolhs (KSS) currently does not pay dividends

Borders Group
4.06 Billion in total sales
151 Million in unused gift cards
58.8 million shares outstanding
This means Borders has about 2.56 dollars per share in earnings potential from unused cards.
Borders (BGP) currently pays 44 cents per year in dividends
*Note that Borders does not clearly separate the amount of unused cards which they believe the probability of being redeemed is remote which means that the 151 million pay include gift cards that are still likely to be redeemed.

Best Buy
35.9 Billion in total revenue
46 Million in unused gift cards
473.9 Million Shares outstanding
This means Best Buy has about 9.7 cents per share in earnings potnetial fromunused cards.
Best Buy (BBY) currently pays 56 cents per share per year in dividends

With these four as examples it is clear that across the retail sector there are billions in unredeemed cards just padding the bank accounts of corporate america.


I encourage you to do your own research into the windfall corporate America continues to gain from people buying gift cards and then them never being used. If you find anything interesting please comment back to this post and I'd be happy to add it to this or a subsequent blog. If you find any inaccuracies in my research I also encourage you to let me know so I can do updates.

There's certainly nothing wrong with this practice. But next time you are buying a gift card, ask yourself, is the person I am buying this for actually going to use it or am I just making a non tax-exempt donation?

Happy researching!

Sunday Sunday Sunday!

Last night was nice. I hung out at Bram's house for a bit and went to downtown Ypsilanti and hung out at Sticks and had a couple tall Oberons. The Nascar race starts in about an hour so I think now I am going to go workout. Yesterday I tired to run my first sub 7 minute mile. I didn't quite make it and trailed off at about the five minute mark. I think I'll try it again today and when I get back I'll update this post and let you know how I did. I've really enjoyed writing blogs the last few days and working on the website so I think there will be more of that to come today as I watch the race...

Well...almost. I suppose 7:20 isn't bad. Perhaps another week of running will be all I need. I also think that 2500 or so calories I had after 9pm yesterday weighed me down a bit.

To add to the disappointment, it looks like the race at Michigan today isn't going to happen.


UPDATE: Well it took one more try. I ran a 6:53 mile yesterday. It was nice to have a little bit of a milestone accomplishment. Now I'll work on shortening the two mile and three mile times and then work down to 6:30 and 6:15.

The Fed

It just popped up on my screen that the fed cut interest rates. I probably should be thrilled about this since I've managed to lose about 20% of my investments in the last two or three months. When the fed cuts rates the market goes up. I should have known something was up when I looked at my stocks and the premarket Bid's were all considerably higher than yesterdays close, which were in themselves considerably higher then they were during the middle of the day yesterday.



I'm sort of surprised. With Ben Bernanke (above) still being relatively new at his position as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the last thing I would expect to see is him folding to market pressure. The market has been kuh-RAP recently and volatility has been nothing short of interesting even to the most casual investor. Still, this recent fallout only knocked off what, 10%? In the scheme of things and with respect to how well things had been this seemed healthy. It seemed as though yesterday's late day rebound was just a burst of optimistic investors trying to "buy low". However, it all of the sudden comes RIGHT before the fed cuts rates? That just seems weird. As much as I have learned about investing there is so much more I need to absorb.

Every time I've gotten ahead with my investments I have gotten greedy/risky and every time I have failed. Right now I'm on the fence as to whether the great feeling you get when your options double in value in one day is worth watching a once promising investment dwindle away over the course of a week or two until it becomes worthless.

I'm really beginning to run thin on money I am "willing to part with" in options and am beginning to form longer term positions with stocks I believe in like Bank of America and Best Buy. Yesterday I was fortunate to get out- break even- of 6 Whole Foods Market Sept 45 calls. OR ATLEAST I THOUGHT I was fortunate. Pre-market bid is now up a bit over 5%- unbelievable. And of course, the other option positions I have either are so far gone that a big gain wont help or are attached to stocks that aren't moving.

Regardless I guess its better to be complaining about the one that got away than about your investments that all dwindled away. Today should be interesting. I wonder how big of a deal the fed cut will be and if it will stop the losses after today. Maybe, now's a good time to but some puts.

Boy Ryan, you sure know how to pick 'em...

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Business ventures

For months now I have had the strangest "entrepreneurial" emotions. I have the amazing desire to accomplish something in the business world but can't for the life of me figure out what it will be.

After another amazing lunch at Godaiko in Ann Arbor, Matt and I discussed our desire to start a business, to enjoy what we do. Basically we want to turn a hobby into a job and get paid more for it!

Matt had a great idea about hockey equipment and I got the sense that he is going through some of the same frustrations as me, start up costs, time, business partner selection. Etc.

I am excited about liquor connoisseur. I always have my doubts about what success of the site would actually mean but that still has time before it come to fruition. I guess the thing that is frustrating me now is that I feel like I need more from my partner in this venture. Bram doesn't have experience with websites nor the software. I, having access to the latter have been able to begin to piece things together but as time goes on I feel a decreasing interest form his end. We were supposed to meet tonight which would have been our first meeting in over two weeks. Bram had canceled each of the last two meetings and now he says that tonight is not looking good either. No matter what happens though I have learned a lot about website development.

Who knows, a few sentences and I could be completely re-convinced of Bram's cooperation.

So, if you're out there, feeling entrepreneurial and want a motivated business partner, give me a call!

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Golf

I just finished my 4th consecutive round of pathetic golf for my league. I shot a 54 and had some decent shots but I should be doing better than that. The real bummer of the day was that on the last hole I hit a guy in the head on the fly. I yelled "fore" but when I drove up to where my ball went which was a bit short of the tee box of hole 10 there were about 8 guys staring straight at me, one of which had obviously been hit. He was holding his head so it was pretty clear that he had been hit. They asked if I yelled out, I was surprised since I did yell and was only about 110 yards away. I think that with all 8 of them there that they were talking and didn't hear. So after the guitly feeling I had to chip on from about 30 yards out with all of them staring at me, hoping I would mess up. Fortunately my chip was nice and put me safely on the green.

Matt seemed convinced that the guy was faking it or got hit on the bounce not on the fly. Nothing i can do now. After I hit my chip I appologized again, trying to sound as sincere as possible. After that he said no problem and that if I yelled that there wasn't anything i did wrong. I guess that made me fell a bit better.

Like I said though i did have some nice shots today and finally felt like some things were coming back to me. hopefully next time I go out I'll put it all together.

Experiements with ScribeFire and Blogger

I've been using firefox as my web browser for about two months and absolutely love it. With my new found interest in scripting, blogging and website development I came across ScribeFire which allows you to post to any of your blogs directly from a composition in your browser window. Its pretty cool. I am hoping to be able to integrate this with some of the connoisseur website. We're trying to figure out how to allow comments and track backs and feeds etc. etc. So this is a test of the ScribeFire system.

If you're not using firefox, you don't know what you are missing.

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Transportation in the News

I'm often troubled by the fact that I feel as though my job is completely separated from reality. This feeling is based on a few things. One, it's difficult to feel accomplished. It's hard for me to point to one tangible thing, documents excepted, and say that this exists or this is a certain way because of me and because of what I have done. Secondly, while transportation is a critical component to everyones lives, VERY few people realize the far reaching affects of transportation and our transportation choices.

Having your entire job based in something that so few people appreciate or understand can be disheartening. For an unfortunate reason, the bridge collapse in Minnesota, transportation and my profession has been thrust into the spotlight. Just today I heard excerpts from a press conference where Bush was answering questions about transportation funding, gas tax increases and earmarks. It was pretty cool to hear things I am familiar with from work in mainstream media. Right now I am watching Bloomberg and Bill Nye the Science Guy is talking about how inefficient many of our transportation habits are. Cool eh?

Certification Exam

The drive was long and my hotel was a dump... The test was not what I expected. Despite my apprehension I really thought that passing the exam wouldn't be too tough. After all I got 87% on the practice exam and if I would have been a little more careful I would have gotten 100%.

The real thing though, was a far cry from the practice test. It was broken down in to two 75 question portions. Based on what I heard from ITE the passing range is around the 66% range. That doesn't sound too bad, and based on that alone means I would need to get 100 correct out of the 150.

I counted up those that I was pretty sure I hard right, I think there was about 50. In addiiton there was about 50 that I thought I was probably right on. You'd think that with the remiaining 50 I would get atleast a few right. So I'm not bursting with confidence but I should be fine. That said, if I don't pass I am going to be VERY PISSED. All together this thing cost me close to 600 bucks. UGH!

Feeling a bit better

Most of my apprehension about the test is gone. I'm still not looking forward to the hours in the car. I have everything I need so its just going there, taking it and coming home.

The site is getting better by the day, Bram and I have a ton of ideas. The next hurdle is getting into google's index which is only a matter of time. It looks like development wise the big challened is going to be adding comment and rating ability for users. We might have to outsource it, but we'll see. Yesterday Bram and I both agreed that it would be critical to the sites success. We also found a place to get free flyers.

If I have extra time today I am going to work on a logo for liquor connoisseur but I want to study as much as is possible for my test. First things first though, I have to finalize my time sheet. D'OH!



http://www.liquorconnoisseur.com

It's up

I wasn't feeling well at work today so I left around noon. It's about 9:15 now and I am feeling a little better but I am glad that I left work. I've got so many thingsto take care of before I leave for Pitt. Thank God I thought to take next monday off!

The exciting news is that our website www.liquorconnoisseur.com is up. Its just a basic page with no links right now but the email account is set up and I linked my adsense account to it.

It's amazing that after all this I still can't spell connoisseur. I have to look it up every time. I gave myself a scare today when I thought I actually spelled the name wrong when I got the domain. Whew.

OK It's about time I go to bed. It's been some time since I got a good night sleep.

Pittsburgh, ITE and the PTP

I leave for Pittsburgh from work on Friday. I wouldn't call what I am feeling nervous, but there isn't a better word to describe how I feel. I am taking the Professional Transportation Planner Certification exam which really means nothing at all.

Ever since college it has been important to me to become "certified" in someway. I thought it was going to be AICP but the more involved in transportation I got, the less AICP seemed relevant. That's why I was so excited when I found out about the PTP certification. Theoretically this is just as important as the PTOE and other certifications ITE gives but I don't think in reality it will give me any more credibility.

I get the impression from my boss that she thinks its a waste of time. OH well. It's important to me so thats what counts, I suppose.

Whats really got me nervous though is the fear of failing. I've always thought of myself as relatively good at what I do and assume that my knowledge is sufficient to be certified but I can't get the thought out of my head as to what will happen if I don't pass.

For one this is costing me a ton, all in all its going to be over 500 dollars, but I'll have to deal with telling my parents and friends and coworkers that I failed a test that is supposed to check knowledge of my own profession?

I did take the "practice test" ITE set up. It's a joke that i had to pay 10 or 15 bucks to take it and I don't know if I believe that the questions were representative of the actual test. After I took the practice test someone from ITE told me that the passing score was one better than 50%. I thought with those odds I can't go wrong. I double checked again though and found out that the passing score varies with each test. The CEO of ITE emailed me to say that if I get 2 out of 3 right I will likely pass. I guess that gives me something to go on.

I'll let you know.

Liquor Connoisseur gets a host

I did end up meeting with Bram yesterday and it went very well. I think we are both pretty excited about this idea and anxious to get the ball rolling. Yesterday we purchased space with a hosting account for a year. We also purchased a new email account so I have another email address now, Ryan@liquorconnoisseur.com which more than anything else, is just cool.

We want to get the site up and running ASAP, just to make sure we have the upload process and ad accounts working properly, then will build on it before we start our marketing campaign which should be fun. I'm thinking we'll have an actual site up sometime middle of next week and my hope is to have it fully functional by the end of August. Wish me luck.