Shiba Cam Live

This has been around for a couple years now, but I just remembered it today.

Free video chat by Ustream

UFC 106

Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin ended with a decision for Griffin.

See a report here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/295145-ufc-106-results-intrigue-and-awesome

Big Partnership - Sound Publishing and Seattle PI

A big announcement for news in the Seattle area: The Seattle PI and Sound Publishing have a new content partnership. You can read about more about it here, on the PI's site: http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/185104.asp?from=blog_last3

Osso buco

Osso buco is the new word of the day. Apparently, it's some kind of veal dish. From this photo it looks like it's some kind of stew or something.

Doing a little bit of research, it can be made with tomatoes or without. If I was making it, i would go with the tomatoes. Just my two cents.

Black Friday's Coming - Are You Excited?

As a professional bargain shopper, I appreciate a good deal as much as anyone does. In previous years, I've done the Black Friday thing in Lynnwood, waking up way too early the day after Thanksgiving in hunt of some various electronics I don't really need (ok, REALLY don't need) just because it's a "deal".

Since I've been scouring the online deals this past 9 months or so, I'm not as interested in going out this year.

The release of the ads early is all the talk of the web. Target's Black Friday ad is a much coveted one, as is Wal-Mart's ad. It appears Wal-Mart has some pretty good deals, a laptop for under $200 and a GPS for under $60. These companies take such security measures to protect their ad content, but unfortunately for them, it only takes one leak in the system somewhere along the way.

I remember at a newspaper I previously worked at hearing some of Wal-Mart's requirements to carry their preprint inserts in your publications. You have to keep the Wal-Mart inserts locked up so that they cannot be accessed by anyone other than the designated handler of them. They even send someone out to your prepress area to make sure that you are complying with this request.

But these are such large companies with such huge reaches that it is nearly impossible to prevent the leaking of these ads. Imagine if a small local business had an upcoming sale and the public was dying to see the ad! (Sorry, a little bit of advertising humor).

Great deal on coins

Here's a funny deal: you can currently buy $1 coins of the various presidents (1-7 available right now, however some are sold out) at face value. A bonus? FREE shipping! There's some pretty funny comments about people using credit cards with points, miles, etc, to buy the coins for face value and then, of course, spend them or deposit them in the bank.

Currently, you only have Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson available for purchase. Of those three, I would have to go with James Madison, who is definitely the most interesting of the three to me. After all, he was the shortest president of all 44.

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=844417

Beach Boys September 7, 2009

1931 66 Pl NE

1931 66 Pl NE

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Cat helper in Friday Harbor

I had assistance at my sales call at the Friday Harbor Animal Shelter

A salad i made

View in Bellingham last week

It was beautiful. I had a nice walk on Thursday evening.

Bacon flavored vodka

As the label proclaims, "a premium bacon flavored vodka", as seen at the
Lava Nightclub in oak harbor.

Michael Jackson - Black or White (Live)

My favorite MJ song, always will be. I think I was in 6th grade when this came out.

Thoughts on losing The King of Pop

Ok, I haven't really wrote anything of meaning (unless you count snapping silly pictures around the Pacific Northwest), but I can't pass up this opportunity.

The death of Michael Jackson, although not entirely unexpected, is still shocking. It is unfortunate that so many talented singers and musicians have met an early demise. The list is too long to name, although it always does invoke in my mind a past-their-prime Bill Medley & Bobby Hatfield (better known as the Righteous Brothers), all decked out in their baby-blue, rhinestone jumpsuits, belting out those corny lyrics to "Rock 'n' Roll Heaven".

As the events surrounding Michael Jackson unfolded this afternoon, I couldn't help but keep seeing the similarities between them and August 16, 1977.

OK, you may realize that August 16, 1977 was over 2 years before I was born. But it does happen to be the day that Elvis Presley died, my all-time favorite singer of all time. And, much like Mr. Jackson, a pretty weird guy.

I should point out that Elvis, though he definitely had his moments, was probably not anywhere near as bizarre as Michael Jackson. But there were many similarities, here are just a few:

-"The King" (Elvis) and "The King of Pop"
-Both widely recognized as the leading singer of their era
-Both had well-documented problems dealing with the pressures of their fame
-Elvis had Graceland; MJ had Neverland
-Lisa Marie Presley (!)

Now the similarities of the day of their deaths:

-Both were rushed to the hospital, which was not far from their homes.

-Cardiac arrest was (infamously) the cause of death given for Elvis Presley.
-Michael Jackson suffered "cardiac arrest" today before being taken to the hospital.

-The media frenzy was similar: fans flooding the areas near their homes and hospitals.

-Elvis Presley was set to start a tour August 17, 1977 - the day after his death.
-Michael Jackson was set to start his extended series of concerts in London July 13, 2009. This would be his first live performance since 2002, and his first regular concerts since 1997.

-Although both fairly young (Elvis was 42 and Michael 50), they were both known to be in poor health for their ages prior to their death. However, neither showed any immediate signs of distress in the days leading up to their deaths.

-Thoes close to Jackson later in the day talked about his increasing use (and abuse) of prescription medications. Elvis' struggles with prescription medication are well-documented, and turned out to be the real cause of his death. As the autopsy has yet to be performed, we will see whether this is another close connection between the two musical icons.

The music world has lost a true talent today, as it did August 16, 1977. Two very troubled souls who both gave the world so much, yet in both cases, one can't help but wonder, "What if?"

Awesome

William Shatner performs "It Was a Very Good Year"

Flea Market Montgomery - Long Version

This is a great ad campaign. Now I'm going to spend the next hour trying to get this out of my head.

Meeting Donny and Marie

A Plan to fix the Economy

Local Real Estate Broker Boe Lindgren posted his solution to the economy recently at his site BoeAndDebbie.com

Boe Lindgren’s solution to the economy
February 6, 2009

Here is the solution to:
• Saving the United States Banking system
• Keeping the American homeowner in their home
• Boosting the U.S. economy
• Establishing better neighborhoods
• Keeping rents down
• Fixing the housing market

I know that is a lot of stuff to solve, but here you go. Instead of the U.S. government bailing out banks by giving them cash, the government should give it to the people. The homeowners in America would be able to refinance their mortgage loan with the government, regardless of their situation.

How would this work?
The government would let anyone who owns a home (or many homes) refinance at 1%, 40 year fixed. It is strictly rate and term (no cash out). Whatever is owed on the property gets paid off with this new mortgage (late fees, penalties, etc…). Now there is one lien on the property, and the owner cannot get a second behind it (or use the home for any type of collateral). The interest paid on this loan is NOT tax deductible. This is a onetime deal. Rental properties are fine too, let’s keep the rents down.

Who wins?
1) Banks – they get all their bad debt off the books and are solvent (government refinanced them out of it, instead of handing over cash).

2) Homeowners – they get a lower payment and can stay in their home.

3) Government – they make tax dollars by getting rid of the single largest deduction & they make 0.5% margin on the money (borrow from the fed at .5%). Oh yea, they also get paid back over the next 40 years.

4) The economy – there will be an increase in consumer confidence and people will begin to buy things again. Homeowners will also have more disposable income (lower house payment).

5) Renters – the rents can stay lower because landlords have a smaller mortgage payment.

6) The housing market – less people will want to sell their home and give up the 1% mortgage. There will then be less supply. Prices will then stabilize.

7) Neighborhoods – with more homeownership and less population mobility (no one wants to give up their 1% mortgage) neighborhoods will get established and people will begin to know their neighbors and take more pride in where they live since they will plan on being there longer.

This could all be implemented by the hundreds of loan officers that are struggling. With no underwriting & no appraisal, just title, escrow, and record. This could be accomplished for under $1,500 a home.

By Boe Lindgren, Owner / Broker Ashlar Realty & Licensed Loan Originator, Seattle, WA

"Come Home To Snohomish"

This lovely ode to Snohomish (the City of, not the County) inspired an article in The Herald (Everett, WA) http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090306/NEWS01/903069966/-1/RSS02

What's going on in the Newspaper Biz?

Since I work in the business I get asked often about the state of newspaper industry.

Sure, there is a lot of gloomy news that comes out about the imminent death of newspapers. A few things in my background that help explain the perspective that I view the situation through:

-I grew up in a newspaper household. There was never a time that the newspaper was not a part of the daily routine. In fact, during most of my childhood my parents subscribed to two daily newspapers and read them both every day. At present time, they subscribe to three! They may be single-handedly trying to save the newspaper industry.
-I began working in the industry in 2002. Obviously, this is well past the heyday of the daily newspaper, and well into its decline.
-The vast majority of my newspaper experience has come from working at weekly, or community, newspapers. So although I believe that daily newspapers have a role of importance in today's market, much of my beliefs are not those of your normal newspaper person.

Anyways, the current model of the daily newspaper will not survive. Those that do survive are ones that will adapt, and FAST. It probably means it will no longer be "daily". We've been seeing this already throughout the country. Some papers are eliminating their Monday edition, some are talking of going to 3 or 4 days a week.

To me, less days per week just make sense to me. People are so busy that I just do not think that there are that many people, even among subscribers, that read the paper every single day. I would love to see a real unbiased study done about this. Of course paid daily newspapers would want you to believe that since the readers are paying they each read the paper cover-to-cover every day.

The other major problem (other than frequency) is type of content. Traditionally, the "newspaper" was all inclusive. Your one source for world, national, regional, and local news, in addition to comics, horoscope, crosswords, real estate advertising, automotive advertising, private party advertising, etc.

Well, flash forward to 2009. For all of those things i have just listed, there are more accessible "free" alternatives available online that are the same or better. For example, people browse private party for sale ads on craigslist. You can read your horoscope on any of thousands of websites. Same goes for world news and national news. Your local newspaper offers nothing unique on any of these topics.

With the great exception of one: LOCAL NEWS. Where else are you going to get your local news? CNN, the New York Times, even the Seattle Times, are not sending reporters out to Lynnwood, Bothell, or anywhere, unless something catestrophic were to happen.

So, basically strip away all of the other things about the newspaper that other people are doing bigger and better, and we're left with local news. Which is the most difficult and expensive to produce. This has been a difficult change for daily newspapers to adapt to. It becomes more challenging the larger the distribution area of a daily.

Back to weekly, or community, newspapers. Guess what? Their focus of coverage, and really 95% of their content, is and has always been LOCAL NEWS. We don't have to worry about the competition for content. In most all cases we are the only one with an in-depth article of the High School basketball game. Or about a local resident organizing a fundraiser.

And they are already once a week in most cases. Not content overload, as well as without the overhead of printing and distributing a newspaper every day. The costs of printing and distributing a daily paper alone are a huge burden.

As an interesting side note, the USPS, another institution in very troubling times, is also looking at reducing a day of service.

So that's why I think community newspapers are well positioned to weather the storm.

I haven't even mentioned online. But you can guess where I would go with that - local.

Sushi Land - Lynnwood

Last night I ate at Sushi Land in Lynnwood. It is the 12th and newest of the Puget Sound area Sushi Land locations.

It's your typical conveyor-belt sushi joint, which seem to be springing up as fast as humanly possible. Just goes to show that even in a tough economy, there are some business models that (appear) to be working. As another example, take a look at all the bikini espresso stands that have opened in the past year. But that's another story for another time. . .

Anyways, last night I went with my sister, her husband, and my 16-month old niece. We picked a rather unfortunate evening for my first visit to Sushi Land, as we had to wait over 45 minutes for a table (er, sorry, not a table, but a place on the conveyor line). Yes, it was a Friday night, and it was the first Friday of Lent, but this seemed a little bit outrageous. But the wait was what it was, so we patiently waited for a spot to open up.

The place is actually very small. It's the size of your run of the mill strip-mall teriyaki joint. But even though it's small, they are able to squeeze a lot of seats in.

One of the things that always has bugged me about these kind of sushi places is the bar-style seating. Although many of them (as Sushi Land does) have a few booths, the majority of the seating is facing the conveyor belt. Although this is convenient for grabbing your chow, it does not make for an enjoyable eating atmosphere, especially if you are with more than one other person and want to have any kind of conversation going on. I suppose we could have held out for a table but that may have been another hour or so!

The main draw of Sushi Land, looking past its conveyor-belt format, has to be its prices. This is probably the fourth restaurant of this style I have been to, and the pricing at Sushi Land beats them all hands down.

They had quite a few $1.00 plates, and any that were not were either $1.50 or $2.00. Their most expensive plate is $3.00 but I only saw a few of these.

The sushi all tasted very fresh, however I am sure that had to do with the amount of people eating at the time. I particularly enjoyed the Philly Roll ($1.50 plate for 3 pieces), but my favorite (call me plain) was the House Special. Arriving on the $1.00 plate, it's similar to a California Roll but with the yellow egg-style roll on the outside, and has some regular tuna inside.

Despite the long time to get a table, the service was actually pretty good once we were seating, taking into consideration the volume of patrons. My brother in law had several special requests for the chefs, and they handled them all in a timely fashion.

Sushi Land will compete directly with Blue C Sushi, which opened around a year ago at the Alderwood Mall (or Alderwood as they would like us all to call it) over in the newer area of outdoor stores on the North side of the campus. Blue C is a fine place to eat as well, it is also pretty small inside (maybe that's the model of these businesses) and can be pretty busy at times. The main difference I saw was the prices at Blue C were on average quite a bit higher. A $1 or $1.50 plate at Sushi Land would probably be $2 or $3 at Blue C.

Overall, it cost me just over $10, but had 8 plates of stuff. Not bad. I'll be back.

OK enough Sushi talk for one day!

Website: http://www.sushilandusa.com/

44 Presidents by Rhythm, Rhyme, Results

A fun way to memorize the presidents. This is one of the few things that has stuck with me since my childhood, I can still recite the "44 presidents" (of course it was not quite that many when I was younger).

Two shibas

Champion Grocery Outlet

I stumbled upon this great little gem in Issaquah today. Well, actually I was taken there by one of our local sales reps at our Issaquah Reporter newspaper.

What I found is a great little store that is kind of like a cross between the Grocery Outlet chains and an organic food store. They have lots of gluten-free, organic, and some plain old regular foods.

I would put up a picture of the outside of the store, but I don't have one. Actually, it's better that I don't. They're not much to look at from the outside. But once inside, you'll find the store quite large.

Some of my deals of the day: Tortilla chips, large bag for 50 cents. Big bags of granola, for $1.50 - $2.50. All sorts of deals. Anyways here's a link to their review page on yelp since they don't have a website. Maybe I'll review them on yelp someday if I'm not too lazy :)

http://www.yelp.com/biz/champion-grocery-outlet-issaquah

1981 primitive Internet report on KRON

Puget Sound Blood Center Visits Marysville

Unfortunately Kara is not in this video, but it was done by one of our Sound Publishing papers, The Marysville Globe.

Get on the Raft with Taft!

Wonderful Food at Frasier's

This wonderful concoction is being prepared by Boe Lindgren of Frasier's Bar & Grill in Everett.

Sexy Arby's Chicken Cordon Bleu Advertisement Commercial 2008

HOT KUMA Good Timin' ---Keepin' The Summer Alive