Whitman – Liar! Liar! Pants on FIRE!

Let’s pretend that Meg Whitman is telling the truth and that she didn’t know Nicky Diaz was illegal until 2009.

Ok. The SECOND Whitman was told that Nicky wasn’t here legally, Whitman should have not only fired her, but she should have reported her. To say that she didn’t because Nicky had been ‘like family’ for many years is bullshit. If Whitman is going to pretend to be hard-nosed about illegal immigration and say that employers are responsible for hiring illegals, then that means HER too. She cannot hide behind her own version of “don’t ask, don’t tell”; nor should she get away with “do as I say, not as I do”.

I don’t believe for a second that Whitman didn’t have a clue as to what Nicky’s status was prior to Nicky’s confession.  Whitman has dug a deep hole for herself by insisting she wasn’t aware and by turning a blind eye, not practicing what she preaches, etc. etc. Allred, although the worst example of an opportunist ever, holds the smoking gun of a letter.

Should Diaz be compensated for all this drama? Hell no. Neither should Allred. (Although, clearly Allred is paid in screen time.) Every single person associated with this mess is guilty. Every one of them. Meg Whitman, most of all because she is the one that is running for office on an anti-illegal-immigration platform – yet she didn’t report Nicky. She admits that.

Pot? Meet Kettle.

Inception: I get it, why don’t you?

Hype! Hype! Hype! Inception is the smartest film of 2010! Christopher Nolan is a GENIUS! A film that’s so mind-bending, you’ll have to see it multiple times to fully comprehend it!

Wait. Really?

I saw it. I liked it well enough. I don’t need to see it again because I GOT IT.

What is it about Inception that has people scratching their heads? It’s not that complicated. At least, I didn’t think so. Could it be that I only *think* that I think I know what it’s about? Maybe I really didn’t understand it and I need to see it again to understand what it is I don’t understand?

Basically, I thought it was about tapping into the subconscious and stealing ideas out of a target’s subconscious. Is that not what it’s about? Because I’m fairly certain people have been tapping into my subconscious for YEARS and stealing all my good ideas. I just always assumed it was some Howard Hughes or Bill Gates type of person that was doing the tapping and then selling the good ideas to the highest bidder. I’ve always said the only thing standing between me and massive riches is venture capital.

If you haven’t seen Inception. Please .. go .. take in a matinee or a 2nd run theater where you don’t have to pay $14.00 just for the admission. Then you decide ..

is it REALLY that complicated?

‘Cause I’m thinkin’ … not so much.

Gowalla Drops The Ball?

I feel like a traitor even typing the words in the title of this post, but I can’t help it.  I’ve been so terribly upset by recent events surrounding the Gowalla service that I’ve taken to sniping at people I don’t even know on an internet board. WTF?

I love Gowalla. I really do. I’m a big fan of the application, and I am annoying in my constant iPhone fiddling. Most of my friends don’t have iPhones, and those that do, don’t Gowalla. So, when I’m out at a basketball game, pretending to listen to mindless chatter while fussing with my iPhone so I can check in at the Staples Center, my friends get annoyed. But, it’s looking more and more like my friends aren’t going to have to worry about that anymore. The main attraction of Gowalla for me is the scavenger hunt aspect of it. I like finding items, dropping items, swapping items, vaulting items, creating spots and founding spots. It’s an addiction. One that has caused me to (more than once) drive and Gowalla at the same time while on the hunt for the one item I need for my collection. (Since new items are released every week, there’s always something I’m missing.)

Then came the drought.

As reported here almost 2 weeks ago, Gowalla suddenly stopped dropping Bonus Items. A Bonus Item is a virtual collectible that randomly would pop up in the app when you would check in somewhere. If I had to guess, I’d say that about every 1 in 10 check-in’s would get you a Bonus Item. Since you can only carry 10 items at a time, it was good practice to regularly drop items at places you checked into. Unfortunately, if you had already dropped an item somewhere, you weren’t allowed to drop a second item. If you didn’t regularly add items to your “Vault” and you didn’t regularly visit new places and drop items, you’d end up with a full pack and weren’t able to receive new items.

Sadly, Gowalla apparently decided to deal with this issue by turning the Bonus Item faucet off .. or damn near.

Clearly, this isn’t sitting well with the users that are affected. Since not everyone seems to have the problem, or maybe not everyone has noticed, Gowalla didn’t seem to feel the issue was all that important. In fact, the first response from a Gowalla rep to the complaint was that this was *not* actually a problem. (Seriously – go look at the link if you think I’m kidding.)

I pretty much stayed out of the fray for a few days, but I finally got a bit miffed at the situation not being addressed and began chiming in. Yes, as days went on, I grew more and more frustrated .. and it showed.

The tipping point for me was a trip out of the country. I went to Canada for a day. I had 24-hours to Gowalla outside the U.S., and I was excited about it. I knew from past experience that AT&T charges an arm and a leg for International Roaming, so I bumped up my plan to allow for 50MB of data to the tune of $60.00. Cheaper than what I’d have to pay without a plan, by a long shot. But, here’s the thing. I landed in Vancouver and checked in to a few of the spots at the airport. I received some virtual peanuts and thought “Great! It’s fixed!”

I spent the rest of my very brief visit checking in to places like MAD trying to acquire virtual items from Vancouver so I could bring them back to L.A. with me and pepper them around town. Over 150 check-in’s and I didn’t receive a single, solitary item. Totally unacceptable.

Meanwhile, more and more complaints were hitting the message board, and no one from the development team was responding or even acknowledging this was a problem. The thread continues to be tagged as “solved”. Then, a new version of the app was issued in the iTunes store. Ok. Maybe this will solve the problem? Nope. No go. Still no response from the makers. And just to rub salt in the wound, the new app seemed to de-emphasize the virtual items, leaving users fearful that the very thing that makes Gowalla superior to other similar apps (like Foursquare) was going to be phased out.

More and more grumbling on the board, and still no response. One poster rightly points out that the users are the ones that input the data into the app, and so this is what makes us .. the users .. feel like we have some investment in the product. Gowalla even has users that they have deemed to be “Elite” members who have the responsibility of fixing spots, tags, etc., when users report errors. These “Elite” members aren’t compensated for their work (as far as I know).

Finally, yesterday I had had it. I posted a very terse message about how the complaints were being ignored, no one was responding and I was just plain fed up.

Shortly after that comment, a Rep did leave a post saying that they ‘hear’ us and they are ‘making various types of item tweaks’. This meant nothing to me. WTF? Is that an answer? I don’t think so. However, I let it go, some others asked more questions. The same Rep came back in and said: “We’re still looking into the issue and still making tweaks. Take that as you will. Of course we want the items feature to “work” as it should, and work well. Why wouldn’t we be seriously looking into it? Thanks in advance for your patience.” The “take that as you will” really pissed me off. I mean .. really.

Later, the same Rep came in and said some ‘tweaks’ had been made the night before and that more would be made that day. Really? What’s a “Tweak”? What does that mean? What was the issue? Have you found the source of the problem?

What I found to be almost unbelievable was the number of people these vague answers seemed to satisfy. Really? Wow. I wish it was that easy in my job to shut people up. Just give some vague DoubleSpeak non-answer and have people go “Oh, okay.” Shit. My life would be a fucking cake-walk if that flew in this business.

Anyway .. Since we had been told the system had been ‘tweaked’ (ugh), I tried a few check-in’s. Know what? Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Donut. So, yeah, I left a smart-assed comment about it. I let my frustration out. I complained about being brushed off, I complained about the shitty updates and I complained about the appearance that the developers were more worried about getting new users via SXSW than fixing a problem for the people that have been using (and helping to populate) the system since it began.

Well, one of those fellow users who was so complacent with the non-answers chastised me.

Really? Are you fucking kidding me? Please. Go the fuck away. I should give them a break? REALLY? I should just sit back and enjoy the smoke enema they are dishing out? Fuck you.

Alrightee then .. anywhooo .. later. The Rep with the great communication skills and fantastic customer service repertoire came back to tell a user: “We’ve stated that we’re on it. Patience while we work (really hard) on your free app, please! “ Oh, yeah. that little smiley face totally makes up for the fact that you just tried to belittle this guy for pointing out your service sucks right now. I mean, it’s not as if the Gowalla database is made up of 650,000 locations that were input BY THE USERS. It’s not like that isn’t some sort of invested interest on their part. Noooooo. And it’s not as if Gowalla isn’t actively working for product integration and tie-ins with a bunch of businesses. Nope.

Apparently .. we should all be GRATEFUL that the fine folks at Gowalla have blessed us all with their genius app that isn’t working and looks like ass now.

And here’s the really sad fact. If they get it fixed, I’ll be right back at it, because I enjoy it .. and .. quite honestly .. I’m over-invested at this point. (Plus .. they still owe me an Incase Slider Case that I won last month.)

1278 Stamps

5 States

2 Countries (altho I didn’t get a Canada stamp when I went there .. what’s up with that?)

115 items vaulted

1 really unhappy Gowallaer right now

The Buttermilk Truck Hits The Spot

I got lucky today. I happened to pay attention to my Twitter feed at just the right moment and saw a Tweet from The Buttermilk Truck saying they’d be in my part of town at 7pm. Even though the Buttermilk Truck was one of only two trucks that I was able to sample at the LA Street Food Festival, I had only tasted the red velvet chocolate chip pancakes. I needed chicken and waffles.

Chicken and waffles, people. I was determined to have them.

I sorta got there early and waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally! Doors up and I could order.

Oh, happy day. Or, errr. Night, I guess.

The chicken. So crispy and crunchy and juicy. It was a little bit of heaven on a paper plate. The waffle fooled me. It looks like a half waffle. It’s not. It’s a whole (big) waffle they fold in half so it’ll fit in the paper boat. So, I really didn’t need the Hawaiian Bread french toast sticks, but I’m glad I got them. Again, light, crispy and flavorful. Absolutely delicious.

I was worried that the location they chose for this evening would not prove to be very busy for them, but a couple of hours after doors up, I saw a Tweet saying they were sold out of the chicken and waffles and the french toast sticks.

I guess I chose well?

So worth it. Really.

LA Street Food Fest – Hit or Miss?

I was so excited for this day to come. The First Annual Los Angeles Street Food Festival! Woo Hoo!

Basically, this was a large gathering of 35 of LA’s popular mobile food trucks in one location. The idea was marketing genius, except for one little problem. Execution.

I knew there was trouble brewing when the day before the event a message went out on the LA Street Festival Facebook page asking for volunteers to work 4-hour shifts due to an unanticipated popularity of the event. The Facebook page alone had over 6,000 “Fans”. The odor of “uh oh” was wafting through the air.

I arrived at the location at 11:00 am, the advertised time doors would open. Since I had pre-purchased “VIP” tickets for $25.00 (I got $5.00 off for early purchase) I didn’t anticipate much of a wait. VIP’s had a separate entrance, there was a limit to the number of tickets sold, etc., etc. I mean, that sort of implies that you shouldn’t have a hard time getting in. Truth be told, getting in was fine once they started letting us in. It was that whole thing about .. you know .. actually opening the doors!

The General Admission line ($5.00 entrance) was ridiculous. It went down the block, around the corner, weaved in a zig zag through a parking lot, continued down the block and around another corner before I lost sight of it. Un-freaking-believable.

The GA line actually started entering before the VIP doors opened. Screw up #1 that ticked me off. For a list price of $30.00; you bet your ass I want to go in first and start chowing it up inside. Once checked in, I was told the VIP lounge wouldn’t be open until around noon, and the gift bags would be available around 1pm. Wiggity what?

Off to the trucks I went. Unfortunately, the lines were already forming, and would only get worse. Hind sight being 20/20, I now realize I should have just gone to any truck that had a short line. Instead, I made the error of going to a truck I was looking forward to trying (The Buttermilk Truck), but that had a long line. It took me over 30 minutes to get to the window to order, once you ordered, you had to wait another 10 minutes or so to get your food. So, 40 minutes or so into the event, and all I had to show for it were 3 very small (but delicious) red velvet chocolate chip pancakes.

I went to find the Dogzilla booth, but that line was just as long as the one I had just gotten out of. I checked the Grilled Cheese line, and it was even longer than the Buttermilk one. Same went for several other trucks I had been itching to try. I ended up in Uncle Lau’s line, and wasn’t disappointed. By that point, I was so hungry I ordered one of each of the three sliders they were offering and took them with me up to the VIP lounge where I hoped to cool down … literally and figuratively.

I picked up my “Goodie Bag”, which had some discount coupons for flower delivery (FTD), a jar of BBQ sauce, light purple nail polish by Opi and some other flyers/ads. Know what would have been really welcome at that point? A DAMN BOTTLE OF WATER. I mean, COME ON!

There was a really small line at the bar. Drinks were complimentary, and tasty, but everyone seemed to be tipping .. as they should. There were only two food vendors in the VIP area, I swear the hype made it seem like there would be more. One was the Dim Sum vendor, who will have a truck on the street in the next couple of weeks. The samples were very good. The other was the Fry Girl, who makes fresh mini donuts right in front of you, and they were DELICIOUS! There was also someone serving what looked like tea, but I didn’t get any of that because I had my cocktail.

I spied on the event from the balcony, looking for any signs that there was at least one vendor that didn’t have a 30minute line. No such luck. I don’t know if they need to have an attendance cut off next year, or maybe more trucks so that people can spread out more, but if they do this again, they need to rethink things.

Personally, I think for $30.00; I should get in to the event an hour before the $5.00 general admission people. I should get at least 5 “front of the line” passes. There should be more food options in the VIP section .. this IS a FOOD FESTIVAL, after all. I think for my $30.00; I should get at least ONE bottle of water, or have a damn Sparklett’s machine in the VIP area.

I hope I remember all this by the time this comes around next year. IF they do it again.

Too Many People!

Ridiculously crowded

iPad misses the mark?

As much as I love Tech, I just can’t see a need or purpose for the iPad.

For the casual user, the lack of support for Flash means no Hulu or Fancast or any other host of streaming media. Why would I want to buy from iTunes what I can stream for free from Hulu or some other service?

When I’m at home using the wifi, I like using a laptop where I can prop it up and scroll around with the trackpad. I would imagine that the iPad would have to be kept closer to you to be able to manipulate the screen, wouldn’t it?

I think it might be cool for photo applications, but my laptop is just as good, so I don’t know that there’s a real advantage.

Then there’s books. Okay, I think it would be cool to use the iPad as a reader for scripts, but you still wouldn’t be able to take notes. If you had the ability to use a stylus to handwrite notes, that would make it very useful. But you can’t do that. Plus, books will still be cheaper via the Kindle (if you’re just looking for novels to read)

I could almost convince myself if the inclusion of 3G wasn’t a double-whammy of higher equipment price coupled with an extra $30.00/month.

Other that it being the new, cool, thing. Is there a reason to pick up an iPad?

Gowelp? Yelwalla?

Awhile back, I mentioned my love of Gowalla. I’ve been using the app like crazy, completely obsessed with finding and vaulting all the items you can pick up along the way. One thing I’ve noticed, however, is that not enough users (even myself) leave useful comments when they check in to places. Eventually, I’d like to see this app become something like a hybrid of Gowalla and Yelp.

I have both Gowalla and Yelp on my main page on the iPhone. I tend to use Gowalla to see what places are in my nearby vicinity, and then have to switch over to Yelp to see what the reviews are. There has to be a way to combine the best of both apps and make this app a dual purpose.

For now, I’m at least going to try to be better about putting descriptions into spots I create, and write something when I check into unique spots. I don’t imagine I need to write commentary when I check in at a McD’s.

Travel etiquette 101

People. Hear my plea. The overhead storage in the airplane cabin is designed for your luggage to go in wheels out (although I prefer wheels in). In any case, the suitcase does NOT go in sideways. If you put your bag in sideways, you are being a selfish bin hog.

And if you’re being a bin hog knowingly, I will give you the death stare when I roughly fling your suitcase around and jam it in the bin to make room for mine, you asshole.

Say What?

I can’t believe I’m about to say this .. but I’m sad this show is ending. As big a pain in the ass as this has all been, and as difficult as it has been to be away from home with no idea whether I’ll have a job in the next few months, I’m sorry it’s almost over.

There are some really good people on this show. People I will gladly go to bat for and people whom I hope to work with again soon.

I’m feeling a little depressed about it all

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