It’s 2012 officially.

And so far, things are off to a good start. Of course, when you go vacationing to an awesome place with some of your best friends, you tend to have a good time. That has been the case for this New Year as well.

Just like NYE 2011, Kelly and I spent time on the Oregon coast with our friends Kevin and Stacy. This year, Chris and Corie visited with us as well and we all had a really nice dinner at the Saffron Salmon in Newport.

On New Years day, we woke up late (not surprising) and went back down to the waterfront area for a nice little lunch at Local Ocean, then on to a whale watching boat in which we actually saw 4 of the elusive humped-back critters. They are super difficult to get caught on film, but I did get a few shots of their spouts nonetheless.

As we’re getting ready to go back out again for dinner, I have been reflecting on the upcoming year and my previous post in which I laid out my resolutions.

I feel like i need to amend that list and add “go to the coast” more often. It quite simply is awesome. Looking at the view just from our rental condo, if I showed you a picture (which i am) you might be hard pressed to say that I wasn’t in Hawaii or something. Absolutely stunning, and to think its only an hour away from our house.

I also would add to the list to “vacation with friends more” because that always makes things more interesting. It’s fun to experience things with your closest friends.

Its almost January 1st, so its time for me to make some resolutions for the coming year that I most likely won’t bother trying to achieve. Seeing the video above inspired me to come up with a list. Some of his resolutions actually mirror my own.

Be less concerned about what people think

I chortled when Ross (above) mentioned this one, because he was clearly joking. Me? Not so much. I actually unhealthily obsess on what people think about me and I think thats pretty much a waste of time. I could have rephrased this one to be less paranoid, but whatever.

Eat more healthy

I really, really need to do this or I am toast. I’ve been with the same old cold now for like 3 months and a lot of that probably has a lot to do with how I eat. Burritos and chinese food on an alternating daily basis probably isn’t doing wonders for my immune system.

Hate less

Pure and simple, I’d like to hate less. Notice I said less and not “stop hating.” I know that isn’t going to happen.

See my parents

Would like to get out back east to visit the parentals and my grandmother this year. We’re all getting older…

Do something more meaningful professionally

Whether it is at my current job or elsewhere, I need to challenge myself a little more this year or I am going to go absolutely fucking crazy.

As the year comes to a close, many tech sites are speculating on what 2012 will bring. Of course, Apple is always a big subject of debate, what with Steve Jobs having passed on.

There was one piece in particular that I read (this one from Ryan Lawler at GigaOM) that made the case that Apple would do well to just focus on the user experience of any future ATV device and not attempt to create a new model (e.g. disrupt) the existing television industry.

I totally disagree with this take.

Now, I’m not saying that Apple shouldn’t stress user experience. Of course bringing simplicity and dare I even say, beauty, to the television viewing experience is key. But this is an area that Apple really has already focused on. The interface for ATV is pretty streamlined already.

No, what I think Apple needs to do is exactly what Lawler says they shouldn’t attempt, which is disruption.

If Apple is smart, it won’t set out to disrupt the programming industry by creating a la carte packages of licensed content. Think of it as “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Apple is not going to be able to disrupt the TV industry, so it might as well give the TV industry the tools it needs to improve their offerings for consumers.

This is exactly what Apple did in their music and phone business. People said that they couldn’t offer a la cart packages in music because labels and artists wouldn’t go for their albums being broken up into pieces. People also said Apple could never create a phone that by and large bypassed carrier control.

They did both and consumers are better served as a result of it.

You can already purchase shows on iTunes a la carte and watch those shows on your ATV, just like music or apps. This isn’t a brave new world, it is the current world that we live in.

Here is what Apple should do.

First, ignore people who say they can’t reform the television industry. This is the company of “Think Different” which brought us the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. I’d like to give them a little credibility in disrupting industries.

Second, they absolutely should build a system that is based on a la carte selection of content choices. You mean to tell me HBO or Showtime or FX won’t go for offering up their most popular shows for a premium price and take more of the profit? Personally, I’d pay $50 or more for a season of Dexter just by itself if I could get it the day it airs, in full HD, with supplemental content throughout the week (maybe teasers, behind the scenes content, interviews, etc). To me, paying for shows I want is worth it – paying for a network of content in which I only care about 10% of said content, isn’t.

This is kind of the problem with Netflix isn’t it? The reason I cancelled Netflix wasn’t due to their stripping off of their dvd business, or their price changes. It was because I was paying a monthly bill for a whole lot of old content that for the most part I didn’t care about. I want to pay for content I want, not that I don’t want. Netflix has like 5% of what I want, and 95% filler. I am also noticing the same problem with Spotify to be honest and that makes me sad.

I am all for Apple providing tools for content producers as well. Giving them tools to create cross device experience is something Lawler advocates for and I agree. It would be awesome to be able to watch Dexter starting on my television in the living room, conclude while laying in bed on the iPad and be able to get updates on the show (be it behinds the scenes, interviews, trivia, games) via my phone.

But thats the kind of thing that we can, for the most part, already do with an ATV or a media center (I use Plex and this is all possible). What I really hope to see from Apple is a total disruption with not so much how a television itself functions, but how cable networks function. I want to pay for what I want to consume, not pay for a buffet filled with broccoli and cauliflower (e.g. stuff I don’t eat)

Don’t hate them for trying
I have started an experiment. I’d like to see how many days I can go without being a hater. Sounds weird, but too much of my daily routine centers around ripping stuff that other people do. I’ve really noticed this happening a lot recently, even before starting to listen to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast which I must admit, has had a profoundly positive influence on my life.

Rogan always talks about negativity being something that clouds constructive or deep thinking. He talks about haters and the fact that they believe they can do everything better, that everyone else is a douchebag or somehow doing it wrong. I really don’t want to be THAT guy.

Something occured to me this afternoon. Ironically, it occured to me as I was silently crtizicing something I saw someone else do on YouTube.

The difference between the hated and the hatee is that the hated actually tried and succeeded. Now, they might not have succeeded in creating something great – in this case, I am referring to video content referencing a popular video game that I play. But, they succeeded at least in the sense that I even know their content exists, which in this day and age is a big accomplishment. There are so many people out there posting video to YouTube, writing blog posts, and generally looking for attention, that it is no small feat to get your name out there and your content noticed.

Sure, I happen to think that I do have more creative things to say than most people do, but if I never say them, or don’t succeed in getting those thoughts heard/read then I can’t really criticize what other people are doing. Therefore, the observations I should be making (or, the kudos that are deserved or should be given) is that someone succeeded in how they got their creation into the world, not that their creation was great or not to begin with. That, of course, is totally subjective.

Examples of this:

This Week in Tech – a show I find to cover extremely basic information. On the merit of its content I don’t find it that interesting, but it has amassed a large following – large enough that the guy who produces it has his own studio, at least. Everytime Leo LaPorte criticizes Apple my skin crawls, but there are many people out there that listen to him just for that.

Ashton Kutcher – a favorite punching bag of mine on this blog. I don’t find his acting very good, nor do I think he is the tech genius he portrays himself as, but he’s pretty well connected now in Silicon Valley and on a hit tv-show. Can’t really deny him that I guess.

Michele Bachman – alright this is getting harder for me to do. There is no love at all in my heart for this person, but she has made it pretty far in life. I don’t agree with anything she stands for, but its undeniable that people find her either enteraining or that some take her seriously, therefore I can see why she would be on the cover of Newsweek or whatever.

Just coming to grips with all of these things above is difficult, but hopefully will help me sort out some of my hater issues. It is going to be a slow process, but together (with me writing and you, reading) we’ll get through it.

Time for another just in time review from your’s truly. Today, I am going to look at Google+, the new social networking offering from Google.

Google+ right now is in somewhat of a closed beta, meaning that you need to know someone who is already on the service to get an invitation. Even then, the invite system is only opened occasionally so if you do manage to get someone to invite you, you may be waiting a while before you can actually sign in and play with it.

At first, meh

My first impression of Google+ was one resembling a ‘meh.’ The “killer app” for Google+ was the way you organize friends into circles. Yes, its flashy (literally) but it something that in actuality you use once or twice and then never go back to, at least in my experience. It’s a novel way to create a list, but sometimes just old fashioned checkboxes work equally as well. Once you start to get friends signing up you will be notified, and its a one click affair to put those new friends into lists, which make the whole flashy looking orbity thing a non-factor.

Someone blocked already? Wouldn't you like to know!

The other major contributor to ‘meh’ was the fact no one was on the service. That’s what one gets for being an early adopter! But now that invites are coming more freely, and the population of Google+ is exponentially growing, there are more photos, status updates and chats to be had.

I really like Google+ and I didn’t think I would

The interface seems cleaner to me than Facebook. It seems easier to read. This could be a font thing, a size of font thing or just the fact that right now Google+ isn’t showing ads or any other stuff. Ironically, there are no business pages on Google+ (yet) so I am also free from seeing a bunch of advertising masquerading as “status updates” as well.

I like the clean interface of Google+

Facebook has a ‘live’ news stream as well, but Google’s feels more live (if that is possible). When someone starts a hangout (or stops one, more on that in a bit) the stream gets updated immediately. I believe Facebook ties the reloading of their stream to some type of a click or mouse action, so if i am just being a mouth-breather and staring at my screen passively, I might miss something new if I am on Facebook. This is totally not a deal breaker, just an observation.

Let’s like, hangout?

Google+ has this pretty cool feature called Hangouts. It doesn’t work for me at all at work, which is where it might actually be useful. That doesn’t stop it from being pretty neato, and it does work on my home network so there is always that.

Tea time!

Basically, Hangouts is like an open, video chat room. You can do just audio chat, and you can also do just group text chatting but the innovation here is in the ability to have 10 people hanging out on video chat all talking together at the same time. Google will switch the camera view to whoever is talking, which is really neat. You can also go ahead and open up your Hangout so the public can join, or just certain people.

Another super neat feature is that you can host You Tube rooms where you can watch videos with your friends. Its pretty easy to do, but seems to be one of those features that just isn’t talked about much. Reminds me of (a very little bit) Turntable.fm, which is a killer site for sharing the music playing experience with friends.

I think towards the future when this can be done over mobile connections on your iPhone and get really excited. That would be really, really impressive. Hangouts is kind of what Facetime should have been in my opinion.

There are still some things missing

Google+ has potential, but there are some things that could be improved upon or just added in the first place.

Still not sold on the whole +1 concept of Google+. They didn’t want to come out and totally jack “Likes” from Facebook, so they made the same thing and called it +1. Unfortunately, if you +1 a web site or a post or something off of Google+ you don’t ever really see that reflected in your news stream, which means, your friends don’t become aware of it. They do show up on your own page, buried under a tab.

The photo albums on Google+ need some work. I have a project I’m working on that has me taking pictures of Tejava tea bottles every day for a year. Each day I upload a new photo, but the album itself doesn’t allow me to switch which photo gets placed as the “default photo” for the album itself. It is kind of just an oversight/pain.

Sparks are basically like baked-in web searches on topics you specify which feed into your Google+ experience but are buried and honestly, no different than just going to the web and doing a search. The stories which come from Sparks should come from public postings on Google+ and help to introduce me to people who have similar interests as mine. Right now, it doesn’t.

Here we go again

Cheesy special effects, uninspired aliens and a rag-tag group of unbelievable human resistance fighters. I thought bad science fiction was the exclusive domain of the Syfy channel?

It was with great anticipation that I stayed up Sunday night to watch the Falling Skies premiere on TNT. A Steven Spielberg produced science fiction show? Especially, one about hostile aliens which invade Earth with a take no prisoners (or very few) mentality? A show that Howard Stern got an advanced copy of and endorsed? Sign me up!

Unfortunately, the show didn’t live up to the hype I assigned to it. Maybe its just my longing for a show that would follow up Battlestar Galactica’s early greatness. I don’t know, but what I can say is that Falling Skies isn’t that new, go-to science fiction story I have been searching for.

When your leading man is Noah Wyle

I don’t really know how Noah Wyle got cast as the leading man in this science fiction series. Looking over his IMDB, you don’t see any science fiction titles – at all. He just doesn’t feel believable playing the leader of a band of revolutionaries, fighting back alien hordes. Not to typecast him too much here, but there IS a role of a doctor in this series which he would have fit really well into.

Instead, I think this would have been a perfect opportunity to see some new faces. Most of the rest of the cast seem to be newcomers, which I think sometimes works better for new shows like this anyway.

Those aliens are just.. not great

The Falling Skies premiere, which was about 90 minutes or so, tells the story of a not too distant future where aliens come to Earth and invade. The aliens are called “skitters” by the local populace, presumably because they have 6 legs and kind of resemble spiders? They don’t really exhibit any other features which would warrant them being called this but, okay. What is more bizarre to me is the “mech” aliens which look more like cylon robots, ala Battlestar Galactica. Apparently, the 6 legged aliens have these buddies which are bipedal robots which are the lovechild of cylons and the Predator.

At the end of the day, design your aliens however you want, but please at least make them look good. 2 legs, 4, 6 or 8 I don’t really give a damn, just don’t make it look like they were designed on a Apple IIe and cut and pasted onto the screen.

As I watched, I really kept wondering if I was on the SyFy channel. I mean, I expected much better production and visuals from a Steven Spielberg produced show.

The special fx house that worked on the show should have been using the following measuring stick – do your creatures look worse than those found in Farscape, yes or no? If yes, start over.

Your aliens better look better than this

Failing Skies

I honestly don’t think I can bring myself to watch another episode of Falling Skies. I mean, I haven’t even critiqued the story yet or most of the acting which was equally atrocious. My wife even commented – my, for these people being brutalized by aliens they all seem to be really chipper and happy! The doctor character, as seen in the first screenshot of this post, might as well be walking around like some kind of fashionista.

If the show would have brought me along with great visuals (passable looking explosion, ships and/or creatures) it would have gotten a second week from me. I mean, if two guys could create the special fx and editing for “Skyline” from their house, I don’t see why this show has such poor looking CG.

As it goes now, I am going to predict a one-and-done season for this show.

I know what you might be thinking – there ain’t no way in here I am going to say something actually nice about this show. And, you know what? You’d be dead wrong. I am in love with this show, and the rest of this review is going to be praise for the cultural phenomenon known as The Jersey Shore.

Hooked from the start

Before I actually sat down and watched the first episode of The Jersey Shore (about 2 weeks ago, they are already filming season 4 so that should tell you something about how late to this party I actually am), the only things I had heard about Jersey Shore were negative ones.

Things like: The Situation named himself after his abs, what a douche bag. Or, Snooki is a whore. Or, Pauly looks ridiculous with his absurd hairstyle and tanning.

My actual experience watching the show though was a lot different than what I thought it would be like. Right from the start I found something to like in all the characters. Clearly MTV used the formula for “Real World” when they put the show together – that being to find explosive personalities that fit into neat little archetypes to fill out the cast, though as far as I know none of the guidos in the show are gay.

The show in a nutshell is about 8 italian “leaning” individuals (4 girls, 4 guys) getting together to stay at a shore house in New Jersey. I say leaning because they aren’t all Italian born and bred per say (e.g. Ronnie is part Puerto Rican) but they are people that on first glance you’d assume to be Italians.

While their personalities all initially seem the same, as the show goes on you quickly find that some aren’t as outgoing or outrageous as you initially thought, and on the whole are good hearted people.

Snooki

Possibly the most popular of the roommates, Snooki is the diminutive, loud mouthed Italian gal who is outgoing and fun, but often misunderstood. Snooki is one of the few roommates who is looking for a loving, permanent relationship. She makes a poor first impression, but get to know her and she is a sweetheart. This stands in stark contrast to the next roommate…

Sammi Sweetheart

I’d have to say that Sammi is anything but a sweetheart, despite that monicker she claims for herself. Sammi is one of the more attractive roommates, who immediately draws the eye of Mike (The Situation, more on him later) and to a lesser extent, Ronnie. Sammi is the quintessential bitch of the group – the kind of girl who thinks her shit doesn’t stink, who is girly and likes to control “her man.”

Ronnie

Ronnie reminds me a lot of the kind of friends I had in elementary and junior high school. He is loud and boisterous. He is that kind of unsuspecting sensitive guy that has a gruff outer appearance that says “this guy could smash me into a million pieces” but has a heart of gold that you could break just by looking at him the wrong way. Sammi chooses Ronnie, partly I believe in order to spite Mike’s advances. Quickly (and I mean very quickly) the show as a whole becomes hostage to Sammi and Ronnie’s relationship.

Mike “The Situation”

Mike is kind of an asshole, not going to lie. He is an instigator, he loves to backstab people and play pranks, and like Sammi, has a very high opinion of himself. But the show just wouldn’t work without Mike. He is the self appointed “father figure” in the house, though most of the roommates dismiss him. Situation loves to pick up girls, and party. He likes these things so much that everything else is pretty much secondary.

Jenni JWOWW

Jenni is definitely the most attractive girl in the house, and the coolest. She has a great personality, likes to party and for the most part, is drama free. Snooki is her best friend amongst the roommates, but there really isn’t anyone she doesn’t get along with, with the possible exception of Sammi (because Sammi is well, fake).

Pauly D

Pauly is by far my favorite character on the show. Pauly is just one of those kind of guys that everyone likes. He has a temper but its rarely seen, and gets along with just about everyone. I really wish the show was more Pauly-centric to be honest as he seems like an interesting person. All we really know about Pauly is that he is Mike’s wingman at clubs and that he is a DJ.

Vinnie

Vinnie, like Ronnie, feels like the kind of guy you might have been friends with in grade school. While he likes to pick up girls, go to the gym and party, he doesn’t really seem like the person who has ulterior motives driving his actions. Pretty genuine what you see is what you get. He also feels the most “Italian” of the roommates.

Angelina/Deena

I end with Angelina because, well, she isn’t worth leading with. Also there isn’t a lot to say. The house almost universally despises Angelina, and she isn’t a cast member very long. Deena, Snooki’s friend, takes Angelina’s place in more ways than one. They have a similar personality, and in my opinion not an overly likable character.

The show progresses much like you’d expect with young, Italian, testosterone horny guys and gals all living in close proximity with little to no responsibilities. They hook up – a lot. They bring back skanks (in Jersey Shore terms they are called ‘grenades’) back to the house. The girls try to get in on the action too. There is a whole lot of cock blocking, pranks and drama between Ronnie and Sammi.

The First Season

A general, overall feeling out of all the roommates. It came as a surprise to me (i don’t know why now that i think more about it) that the cast didn’t know each other ahead of time. Anyway, they check into the house, do some meaningless work at the Shirt Store on the boardwalk, and go out every night to clubs to pick up girls and guys. Snooki gets knocked out by some douchebag jock at a bar.

The Second Season

Its a show called Jersey Shore, but this one takes place in Miami. The cast works at a Gelato shop this time, and of course I use the term “works” lightly. More of the same from season 1, lots of hooking up. This one was almost excessively filled with drama between Ron and Sam.

The Third Season

Back to the shore. Full blown war between Ron and Sam. Mike gets punched in the face a few times, so does Ron. A new roommates joins the cast. Everyone turns on Sam.

The Fourth Season

Will have to report back later as it is still filming in Italy.

Used to be a witness

I remember being a witness.

It was a marketing campaign, Nike I think, with a photo of Lebron James dunking a basketball in a silhouette very reminiscent of Michael Jordan’s iconic foul line dunk. Back then Lebron was a Cleveland Cavalier. As a native Ohioan (him, not me), it was a great story. The young basketball prodigy who plays for his hometown team (well, near enough he is from Akron). The promise of an NBA championship for a city with very little going for it and a history of failure in sports.

That Cavaliers team eventually went to the playoffs, and then the conference finals, and the NBA Finals. Of course, it was mostly Lebron who was responsible. And yes, with some more help, Lebron may have been able to achieve a championship with Cleveland.

Once Lebron was eligible for free agency, it was virtually a forgone conclusion he’d leave Cleveland. But for many (including myself) the idea that he’d stay with the team that drafted him, that he’d finish what he started, was enticing.

The decision

Ever since I can remember first hearing about Lebron, back while he was still in high school, the one thing that always stood out about Lebron was his ambition. This is a guy that from a young age set a goal of being the first billion dollar athlete. He wanted to be known as a global icon. He welcomes the monicker “King James” and wore the number 23, the same number Michael Jordan wore.

I guess when you are young and super talented (and for anything negative I might say about Lebron the one thing that is undeniable is his talent) and people have always told you “Yes” you have those kinds of dreams. And, dreams are good. We all have them, and if those are his then more power to him.

All of that said, The Decision (as it was called by ESPN, a highly produced television show to announce Lebron’s intentions) was a total disaster for everyone watching with the exception of Miami fans. “Taking my talents to South Beach” I think sounded good to Lebron as he must have rehearsed it back at his crib, but sounded pompous and again, arrogant. It was a slap in the face not only for Cleveland fans, or those who were in cities wooing him to come to their team in free agency, but also for basketball fans who just wanted to believe that maybe, just maybe, this guy WAS the second coming of Jordan.

He isn’t Michael Jordan

I remember watching Michael during all of his championship runs. I used to draw the Chicago Bulls logo on my grocery bag covered books (do kids still need to do that to their school books anyway?) during class. I had newspaper headlines with “Bulls Win!” pasted to my room wall.

Whether Michael was a saint, or not, most people believed he was and saw no evidence to the contrary. He was a consumate teammate, and leader. He seems to be everything that Lebron isn’t. Never shying away from the final shot, or one to make an excuse about his play. Never one to jump ship to another team to take the “easy way out.”

Taking my talents to shit beach

Having grown up in Florida, you’d think i’d be a Miami fan but I’m not. I found Miami to be a dirty, disgusting city with lots of fake people and fair-weather, disinterested sports fans. Not to mention, owners of teams which are quick to blow up their rosters once they win a championship.

What I am trying to say is, it didn’t really matter to me where Lebron played, so long as it wasn’t Miami. He could have gone to Charlotte, New Orleans, San Antonio – you name it. Just not Miami.

Posing

What is up with Lebron and posing after scoring the basket? Act like you’ve been there before, even if you haven’t (I guess). Can you imagine posing at work after absolutely killing it on some deadline to get a budget report out? Or, standing back to admire your work after replacing a valve on a bathroom faucet? Don’t get me wrong, sport is spectacle, but I am talking about the really excessive posing James does during just about every game. Technically, Lebron hasn’t really accomplished anything yet. Until he does, acting like a bad ass instead of “being” one is just kind of sad.

Mostly negative

At the end of the day, Lebron made a decision which was totally selfish. He admitted it, he wanted to play with his friends and win multiple championships. Thats his right and I actually don’t have a problem with that. The problem I have is that it would really be nice, just once, to idolize people and root for people who have virtuous qualities. Lebron just doesn’t have those. He isn’t the kind of person I want to even relate to. Sometimes, being a winner as a person means being part of something bigger than just yourself. Maybe that says more about the idolizer than the idolizee.

Lebron would rather be rich and despised than poor and loved. I don’t think i could say the same.

Let there be no mistake or confusion, Donald Trump was never going to run for President. Besides his total lack of qualifications to be the Commander and Chief, people close to him always said he was just flirting with the possibility for attention. Its a great day for America that we don’t have to actually worry about him running, because it would be a major distraction.

Just today, Trump posted a video to his You Tube channel talking about the reasons why he decided not to run, while not running out a future bid for the White House. This video perfectly illustrates why Donald Trump could never be President, and backs up my total belief that he is a douchebag.

You’re fired

Who would even want to work for Donald Trump? I think the people he fires on his show are being done a huge favor, to be honest. I mean, it’s really hard to lead people when you are a megalomaniac. Could you even imagine Donald Trump in a Presidential cabinet meeting? Or in any kind of an international negotiation?

His attitude and self importance are exactly what the rest of the world hates when they look at the United States. Contrast that with Barack Obama, which represents compromise, hope and a better future. Whether Obama has delivered on those things is to be seen – I still think he came into a horrible situation with our economy and foreign affairs that requires more than a couple of years to fix. But Trump epitomizes the stereotype that is pervasive across the world about the US – that we are arrogant, elitists who care nothing for anyone but ourselves.

Delusional

Because this is my site, with my own opinions, I feel justified in saying things based on feeling rather than always looking up facts. I will concede (and I don’t really need to but will anyway) that The Apprentice is a popular show. Hell, everyone tells me that 2 1/2 Men is a popular show, yet I don’t know a single person who watches it. Same with Apprentice – who watches it? I tried, and it was horrible. B level actors and minor celebrities who “work” for Donald, even though his kids shoulder far more of the burden of managing the actual contestants than he does. Trump lives in this fantasy world where he is a king, where people love him and where his show is actually good.

Where is the self-critique?

I’ve never heard Donald Trump admit a failing. I’ve never heard him say “I was wrong.” Even after it was clear he was making up stuff about Obama’s birth certificate (that he knew beyond a shadow of doubt that the President wasn’t from this country), Trump simply claimed credit for “making” Obama release proof.

This guy needs to learn some humility – even a teensy bit, if not for us (the public who has to listen to his garbage) for himself so he can improve. There’s not a person alive who is perfect, yet you wouldn’t know it listening to this guy talk.

What did we learn about Trump from this video

So based upon his own words, in the video I’ve embedded above, we have learned the following things.

• Trump would rather critique a plan than come up with his own.
• Trump would rather “take the money” even though he is rich, than serve any type of greater good.
• Trump couldn’t even get along with Republicans, the party he says he belongs to and wants to represent.
• Trump would have preferred to see the government shut down than forge any compromise with Democrats.

For example, I consider myself an expert on Internet marketing, the game World of Warcraft, and on many Apple related topics. You, however, might be more skilled than I am and decide that I’m not in fact an expert. What I can say though for sure is that most of the things I will review on my site I am not an expert in. This include the game of basketball, pop music, parenting (unless it concerns parenting of dogs and cats) and politics. With this caveat, I give you my review of:

Grantland

This is a new site that was created by Bill Simmons, presumably in conjunction with ESPN. Bill is named “the Sports Guy” and has a podcast and an online column on ESPN.com. It’s my opinion that he does an exceptional job with his podcast, but is somewhat mediocre at writing for online mediums, where he has a tendency to write 10,000 word blog posts that are virtually impossible to read in a sitting. They also feature few, if any, photos which makes for pretty brutal online reading. I think there is an art to blogging, and Bill hasn’t mastered that yet. His stuff reads well in book form, though, and I own his “Book of Basketball” which was pretty good.

So lets talk about Grantland.

What’s in a name?

First, what the hell is with the name? Maybe it is an homage to something, or an inside joke. I don’t want to have to spend a lot of time figuring out what the hell your site is about based on the name of it, you know? Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to figure this out even after looking around the site. The site carries a picture of some person hitting a baseball in an unknown field. Based on Bill’s reputation as being a Boston sports aficionado, I will therefore assume the person hitting the ball is in Fenway Park?

So, this is a sports blog because that’s Bill’s background and his affiliation with ESPN, right? And it is sufficiently different than his existing blog on ESPN.com that necessitates a totally new site? Not entirely.

Sports and Pop Culture?

I don’t really understand the connection that Simmons likes to make between sports and pop culture. I guess you can say that athletes are also in the public eye and often do stupid things which put them in the crosshairs of a TMZ, Entertainment Tonight or some other magazine/show. I just know that Simmons has a fascination with both topics, as evidenced by his podcast (which again, for the record I mostly like). Alas, the only time I turn off his BS Report show is when he brings on David Jacoby to talk about The Real World, which might have been a fun topic to banter about but is now about 15 years too late.  So, alright he is interested in multiple topics. So am I – I guess i can understand and let this slide, even though this is supposed to be a professional production whereas, say, my blog is not.

So about this site..

Disregarding my opinion that Bill’s qualifications to talk on pop culture can be questioned (as in, what are those qualifications anyway?) I am going to examine the site itself.

After showing my friend at work who is a big fan of Simmons (even his columns) the first impression he had was.. WTF? This is just a blog, right?

Yeah, I don’t know. It looks like a blog to me. I don’t have a problem with the site being based off a blog, but I do have a problem with it looking like a very uninteresting blog. I do have a problem with you taking basically a WordPress or Tumblr blog, and not even bothering to customize it. I mean, there was a budget to this project and some thought process about how it would sustain itself, right? Maybe sell advertising or subscriptions? Even if there wasn’t, Grantland really could use some sprucing up. Maybe I am especially sensitive to this because I’ve spent the better part of three weeks totally customizing a WordPress site to look like a corporate site for a billion dollar company, but I know for a fact I could have designed Grantland in a weekend and to me that isn’t a good sign.

Coming soon

Lots of coming soon’s on the site. Please tell me that as consumers of the Internet now for, I don’t know, the past 10-15 years (some of us longer, hollar!) that we have moved past placing “Coming Soon” or “Under Construction” on our web sites. Especially with no indication of what “soon” means. How woefully amateur this all looks, and that leads me to the next gripe.

I’d like to read yesterday’s content please

Today on Graceland we talk about X, Y and Z. Oh, you want to see what we talked about yesterday? Nope, no way to do that! Well, you could always click on “Features” at the top, but since there are no dates on when the articles are posted that is an exercise in excessive clicking. Maybe the web guy at Grantland figured, screw it lets make the navigation nondescript, lets force people to click through a bunch of shit to get to what they want – it’s all good for clickthroughs so we can show more Subway ads.

Alternatively, i could click on the columnist link at the bottom, and those snippets include a date. But, those links only show the latest post, not a full accounting of all the articles written by the columnist in question.

Sigh.

I could go on longer, but needless to say I think Grantland needs some help. I don’t even really see the potential of the site. I’ve heard Simmons talk about it on his podcast – about how it was going to be a site about sports written from a fans perspective. Why then did he recruit a bunch of sports journalists? Wouldn’t it have been more interesting (and genuine) to have solicited sports stories and commentary from non-professionals? Recruit some of the top sports bloggers in the country? Or hell, just “bloggers” in the country to talk about their love of sports.

Also, Simmons and ESPN really should hire someone to help them redesign the site. It is really miserable and uninspiring as it stands now. Make the content easier to read online (this is not a newspaper), add some interactivity, bring in new voices who aren’t professionals that we can already get daily content from on other sites/mediums and focus on sports. Grantland with its split “sports and pop culture” nature reminds me of one of those Taco Bell/Pizza Hut combos you can find in an airport or college food courts. Sure, you CAN eat burritos and a personal pan pizza at the same time, but it is kind of ghetto.