Month: November 2007

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. In addition to it being Thanksgiving, today is also the anniversary of this blog. It’s also the birthday of one of my granddaughters. She’s nine today and we all miss her very much.

Not much else to blog about. The racing season is over, and Hendrick won another championship. Champ Car wants Nashville to put up $2 million to have a grand prix here. Uh, yeah right.

I daresay that blogging (for all my readers, both of them) will be light the next few days. Got a lot of stuff to do around the house and I’m working on a programming project for a client, so the time off from my real job will hopefully let me get most of that done.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

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NASCAR: Final Nextel Cup Season Ends

Despite the fact that there are only 86 points separating the top two drivers in the Cup Series, this year’s Chase has, much like the regular season, been a snoozer.

Jimmy Johnson only has to finish 18th or higher to clinch the championship, no matter where Jeff Gordon finishes. So, will he race for five wins in a row or two championships in a row? Is it really good for the sport for one driver to win almost one third of the races? Or one team owner to win half of the races?

I get less interested in NASCAR each week. Apparently, I’m not alone. For the third year in a row, TV ratings for NASCAR are down. I think NASCAR confused the ratings bump they got from Dale Earnhardt’s death in early 2001 with actual fan interest. They must have thought that their new TV package was bringing in the viewers, when it fact it looks like people were watching just to see who would be the next fatality.

NASCAR just can’t seem to find a national audience. Maybe that’s why they’re thinking of “going green.” There are reports that they’re looking at E85 fuel, which is a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. This from the sanctioning body that just recently stopped using leaded fuel.

I don’t have any idea why NASCAR thinks using an ethanol-based fuel will be a good idea. From a technical standpoint, there’s no need. E85 fuel results in lower gas mileage, which would be a nightmare for crew chiefs. From a “green” standpoint, I don’t think race cars emit enough cumulative “green house gas” to make a big difference, even if you do buy into the global warming theory. I can only conclude that NASCAR is doing this for PR purposes.

Speaking of boring championships, the Busch Series this year was a virtual repeat of last year, with the champion being a Cup driver and being crowned several races before the end of the season. I can’t think of any better way to ruin a series.

I doubt I’ll be watching much of the Homestead races. With the Truck Series on SpeedTV, I never can remember to tune in. And why should I watch “Cup Lite” on Saturday? I’ll probably check in periodically to see the status of the Cup race just to see what’s going on.

On a final note, if Google buys Sprint as rumored, will NASCAR fans put up with another name change? And will they tune in to watch Google Cup races?

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Robert Plant/Alison Krauss – Raising Sand

I vaguely remember hearing about the collaboration of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss a few months ago. At the time I thought it could either be an incredible project or a dud.

Surfing the net today, I discovered that their collaboration has been released. It’s called Raising Sand. I went to the web site for the project at www.robertplantalisonkrauss.com hoping to learn more about the project and maybe hear some samples of the resulting music.

The project was produced by T Bone Burnett. I have one of his CD’s called The Talking Animals. I bought that mainly for a song called “The Killer Moon” which initially reminded me of John Lennon. The rest of the CD is ok, but I never was interested enough in his stuff to buy anything else by him.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that you could listen to the entire Raising Sand album on line at the web site. I didn’t really know what to expect. Alison Krauss is probably the best female singer I’ve ever heard. And of course, Robert Plant is a legend in rock music. Maybe I halfway expected them to sound something like Hayseed Dixie. Boy, was I wrong.

If you’re looking for upbeat music, this isn’t the album for you. It’s definitely not a cross between rock and bluegrass. I don’t really know how to describe it. I guess it reminds me more of Cowboy Junkies than anything, and I don’t like the Cowboy Junkies.

I think the main problem with this album is the song selection. Apparently Burnett picked the songs.  I guess he was trying to avoid anything that might be similar to what Plant and Krauss would normally do, and I think he succeeded very well at that.

I was familiar with one song on Raising Sand. “Please Read The Letter” was a cut on the Jimmy Page/Robert Plant CD called Walking Into Clarksdale. Without Page’s guitar work, the song lacks spark and punch. But actually, most of Raising Sand could be said to lack spark and punch.

The drums (or whatever; it’s hard to tell) are some of the muddiest sounding drums I’ve ever heard. The vocals, from two of the best vocalists in the business, sound so subdued that you have to wonder if they were really into the project. According to the video on their website, they were into it.

I think Rounder made a big mistake when they put the whole album on line to listen to. I would have probably bought the album unheard had I seen it in a record store. I’m definitely not going to do that now.

I really hope these two get together again, but with a different producer. They have incredible potential as a duet.

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Avoid Member’s Edge – Block Third Party Billing

We noticed we were being charged $20 for voice mail on our AT&T bill this month. The only problem is, we turned off voice mail at least a year ago. Turns out it was from a “third party billing company” called ILD Teleservices, AKA Members Edge.

I called the number AT&T gave me to get this “service” canceled (877-448-3232). A recording thanking me for calling Member’s Edge told me my call was important to them and that all of their agents were talking to other Member’s Edge customers. I waited on hold for about 10 minutes, then a beep and silence. I called Member’s Edge back about 30 minutes later, was told again that Member’s Edge considered my call important, and after about another 10 minutes on hold, “Sonya” answered. I explained to her that I’d never heard of Member’s Edge or IDS Teleservices. She explained to me that someone signed up for Member’s Edge. That person turns out to be a guest in my house.

I told her that our guest didn’t have the authority to sign up for anything that would add charges to my bill, but she insisted that didn’t matter; if they put in a birth date that shows they’re over 18 and a mother’s maiden name, that’s enough for them.

After a little back and forth, she offered to issue me two month’s credits. I told her that I had charges for three months and that wasn’t acceptable. She basically told me that was all she could do. So I told her that I’d just not pay the charge on the current bill and they could sue me.

The bottom line here is, if I know your address and phone number, I can go to the Member’s Edge web site and sign you up for stuff you don’t want or need. If I’m unscrupulous, and I work for one of these companies on commission, I could sign up a whole bunch of people and make a ton of money. There’s literally no confirmation done by your phone company that these charges are legitimate. Their system just takes the info from the third party, and if the info matches, they add it to your phone bill.

AT & T does have a free service that will block third party billing, but you first have to even know about it, and second you have to call them and opt in to it. This is backwards. If I want to allow third parties to put charges on my phone bill, then I should have to call the phone company to tell them to allow it. At the very least, I should have to speak to someone at the phone company to verify that I’m signing up for something to be billed to my phone bill.

I’d suggest that everyone call their phone company right now and sign up to block third party billing to prevent companies like IDS Teleservices/Member’s Edge from submitting charges to your phone company. Otherwise you’re leaving yourself open to having to pay for charges for a service you didn’t sign up for. And by all means, read the fine print on these web sites that try to entice you by giving you free things…free until you find out you have to “complete” the sponsors’ offers.