Author Archives: Jon Lowder

The Crooked Road

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The Roanoke Times has been nominated for an online journalism award from the Online News Association in the category of "Outstanding Use of Multiple Media (Large)" for a piece called "Going Down the Crooked Road." The site chronicles the Virginia Heritage Music Trail and has links to video taken of performers in Clintwood, Hiltons, Grayson, Galax and Floyd. 

We’ve been to Floyd a couple of times this year when we visited my Mom and the video gives you a nice glimpse at their Friday-night music scene in and near the general store.  I’ll admit that the music isn’t my cup of tea, but it’s definitely an interesting place with interesting people. 

Good Reason’s to Attend This Year’s ConvergeSouth

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If you weren’t already convinced that this year’s ConvergeSouth (North Carolina’s own blogfest) then here are two new reasons that popped up today:

Need I come up with more reasons?  Well there’s this: it’s free.

On another note: why don’t you sign up to eat at News & Record editor-extraordinaire John Robinson’s dinner?  I think he’d enjoy your company.

Mark Warner in Second Life

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Former Virginia Governor and possible Democratic presidential candidate Mark Warner recently made an appearance in Second Life, the incredibly hot online virtual reality "game."  You can see a transcript of it here.  Warner really is the political polar opposite of George Allen, aka Macaca Man.

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Don’t sleep on Warner as a presidential candidate, if not in ’08 then in ’12.  He’s proven in the past that he’s persistent and effective in the political arena.  After losing the race for Virginia governor in ’98, and being dismissed as a rich political neophyte who tried to buy himself a seat in the Governor’s mansion (he’s a self-made millionaire and spent a lot of his own money to finance his campaign) he patiently built up his base, especially in rural areas outside of Northern Virginia, and came back four years later to win in ’02.  He left office with higher approval ratings than he had at the beginning of his tenure, this despite raising taxes.  He also left the state in a healthier fiscal state than he found it.  Yep, all in all I’d say he’s the real deal.

Cool DIY Video

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Most of the stuff I find enjoyable on YouTube is of the America’s Funniest Home Videos variety.  You know, people doing stupid stuff and getting caught on video.  But more and more I’m finding DIY videos that are just down right cool.  Here’s a great example titled "I Dropped My Super 8 Off The Golden Gate."

Sorry, You’re Too Old for Us to Take Your Business

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According to this article in the Daily Mail, a British company called Carphone Warehouse is not accepting business from people over 70 unless they are accompanied by a younger family member.  From the article:

The 75-year-old would only be allowed to sign the forms for the
Carphone Warehouse’s TalkTalk phone and broadband package if she was
accompanied by a younger member of her family who could explain the
small print to her.

Mrs Greening-Jackson, who sits on the board of several charities, said:
"I was absolutely furious. The young man said, ‘Sorry, you’re over 70.
It’s company policy. We don’t sign anyone up who is over 70.’

And later:

When her case came to light on Radio 4’s You And Yours last week, Carphone Warehouse admitted it had adopted an over-70 rule.

But the firm insisted it was not a blanket policy and claimed the
guidance was to protect the elderly. A spokeswoman said: "It is not our
policy to refuse business from adult customers of any age group.
However, we do ask our agents to use their discretion when dealing with
older customers."

She added that the discretionary rule had been introduced in response to complaints that staff had mis-sold products last year.

Now if what she says is true, that they put a discretionary policy in place to try and prevent someone who’s clearly not right in the head from entering a contract, then I can kind of understand their motivation.  My question for them, though, is how did you figure 70 is the right age, and why in the world didn’t you just make it a blanket policy for all ages?  After all, I’m fairly certain they see their share of young people who aren’t right in the head and need to be protected from entering into binding contracts.  All you need to do is look in Parliament there, or Congress here.

Bleepin’ Traffic

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I40atrushhourSee that picture to the left?  That’s a picture of I-40 at Peters Creek Parkway at what is considered rush hour in many cities.  That picture represents a huge reason why Celeste and I moved the family here.  You see, we moved from a place, Northern Virginia, that has essentially one day-long rush hour every day, to a place that has a "moseying along" half our in the morning and another in the evening.  You’d be amazed what a difference it makes in your life when you don’t have to plan around traffic.

In case you think I’m exaggerating let me just compare the traffic cameras available online in Winston-Salem via the Winston-Salem Journal’s site and in NoVa via the Washington Post’s site. By my count there are 25 traffic cameras in all of Winston-Salem, but in NoVa there’s that many between the beltway and the southern edge of the I-95 corridor alone.  I was going to count all the camera’s in Northern Virginia, but I just don’t have the time.

I swear getting out of everyday NoVa traffic has dropped my blood pressure by ten points, even though all the barbeque here has added about 15 pounds of pudge to my not-so-svelte frame.  Life is good!

Tiger Ad

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I’m not sure how late to the party I am on this, but I just saw Nike’s online ad featuring Tiger Woods’ swing.  They took a very high-end camera that can shoot 4,000 frames a second and shot Tiger’s swing with a driver.  It’s a thing of beauty, as is the commercial, and that being typed by a guy who struggles to break 110 on a good day.

I’d love to see something similar with Roger Federer’s swings, particularly his backhand. He’s tennis’ answer to Tiger.

I’m Pretty Sure This Ad Wouldn’t Appear in the Printed Washington Post

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MateSee this ad on the left?  It appeared on the web page of a Washington Post article I was reading.  I’ve noticed this ad on the Post the last few times I’ve been there and it’s caused me to have the following thoughts:

First, I can’t see this ad, or one similar to it, running in the print version of the Post except maybe in the Sports section.  The article I was reading was about politics.

Second, every time I see this ad it claims these women all live in Clemmons and every ad has three different women who look like either a soft-core porn actress or a Sports Illustrated-Swimsuit-Edition-wannabe.  If all these pictured women do indeed live in Clemmons then I’d have to believe there would be more bars than nursing homes in the village, which is not the case today.

Now I’m not an idiot, and I know those are stock photos on supposedly real listings that were served to me based on my IP address, so that leads to my next question: why does this work?  Even if I were enough of a sucker to believe these women actually lived in Clemmons and actually needed to use an online dating service (as if) why would a schlub who actually does need a dating service have the temerity to believe he could score a date with one of these lovelies?

Next, what is the alternative to "intimate dating?"  Perhaps "arms-length" or "disinterested" or "slightly chilled" or my favorite, "how the hell did I get myself into this mess?"  Of course this is from a guy who hasn’t been on a date in almost 20 years so what do I know?

Finally, who wants to lay odds that we’ll be seeing male enhancement ads on the Post site some time soon?

This is What’s Wrong With America’s Leaders

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There’s an article in Time about House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi which I think perfectly highlights what’s wrong with America’s leadership.  From the article:

The 66-year-old San Francisco lawmaker is an aggressive, hyperpartisan
liberal pol who is the Democrats’ version of Tom DeLay, minus the
ethical and legal problems of the former Republican House leader. To
condition Democrats for this fall’s midterm elections, she has employed
tactics straight out of DeLay’s playbook: insisting other House
Democrats vote the party line on everything, avoiding compromise with
Republicans at all cost and mandating that members spend much of their
time raising money for colleagues in close races. And she has been
effective. House Democrats have been more unified in their voting than
at any other time in the past quarter-century, with members on average
voting the party line 88% of the time in 2005, according to
Congressional Quarterly. That cohesion enabled Democrats to hasten
President Bush’s slide in the polls when they blocked his plan to
reform Social Security by allowing retirees to eschew guaranteed
benefits in favor of private accounts. Bush’s approval rating remains
depressed–38% in a TIME poll last week–and the Democrats are in their
best position to win the House since Republicans took control of it in
1994.

I don’t know about you but I don’t vote for anybody to go to Congress and vote the party line.  I vote for them with the expectation that they will go to Congress and vote their conscience, for what they think is best for the country.  Hell, I don’t even expect to agree with them all the time, but I do expect them to do what they think is in the best interest of the country and there’s no way they can do that if they vote the party line. 

Is there anyone in our country’s leadership who isn’t serving a political party, PAC or donor interest before they’re serving the country?  I swear at this point I’d trust a room full of convicted felons before I’d trust this bunch.  Why?  Because the felon’s aren’t smart enough to get away with robbing me blind (they did get caught after all) while members of Congress, with the exception of folks like Duke and Delay, are smart enough to get away with it and somehow get re-elected.  I’d rather deal with people who try to stab me in the front than those who keep nicking me in the back.

Now you know why I continue to proudly proclaim myself an independent with a capital "I".