Blogcritics Author: Will Kessel

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Schembechler's Death A Sad Moment For UM, OSU Fans Alike

Will Kessel — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 01:42:49 EST

During the taping of the "Big Ten Ticket" show at a television studio in Detroit, Michigan, Bo Schembechler, former coach for the University of Michigan football team, collapsed and died this morning. He was 77.Tomorrow's game aside, this is a sad day for college football -- not just for Michigan.He was a classy guy, a nasty opponent, a great teacher, and the consummate college football coach. He will be missed. Having been through the loss of Woody Hayes, I feel for Michigan fans.No doubt his death will have a profound impact on tomorrow's game, the Big Ten, and NCAA football as a whole. And the normally-high stakes may be even higher for Michigan given their rankings, but Saturday's game is just Saturday's game.Good sportsmanship requires many things, but for Saturday it requires a few more: I would exhort Buckeye fans not to boo Schembechler when his death is announced at tomorrow's game (and it will be). Respect the man and his accomplishments because he is as much of Ohio State's tradition as he is Michigan's. I would exhort Jim Tressel to understand (and he will) and communicate to his team that tomorrow's game is still strictly business -- they have the better team, they're playing at home, and they can best deflate Michigan emotionally by playing solid football.And the single, most respectful thing the Buckeyes can do tomorrow afternoon is to soundly whip the Michigan Wolverines and send them home 10-1. For Woody -- in Bo's memory.

Will Kessel is a writer, blogger and free-lance web designer/developer living in Cleveland, Ohio.

Christmas from October to January: Bah! Humbug!

Will Kessel — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 07:26:05 EST

Yeah, I know, it sucks - yet another Christmas season being crammed down our throats from October to January.Ferrett has a few things on the burner regarding the "Merry Christmas" / "Happy Holidays" thing, so I'm not going to go there; he says it quite well enough for the both of us: One of the main joys of not working in retail these days is not having to hear the same twelve songs played over and over and over and over again. This is my main issue with Christmas. Right here.See, Christmas season seems to bring out the absolute worst in people - particularly entertainers without a speck of talent. (You thought I was going to complain about people's bad driving? Hah!). Most of these folks think that they should do a Christmas CD, that somehow, mysteriously, will help their career.Not quite. Don't even go there.I'm really getting sick of going into a store and being forced to listen to some lame-assed, downright awful rendition of an ancient song that had meaning at one time, and obviously not to the entertainer singing it. (That is, if you can call it singing). They sing sour notes, over-slur the glissandos, scream, wail and belch their way through what used to be pretty music extolling the reason for the season.All the while, they think they're sounding pretty good; all I want to do is retch. It usually sounds like they've been hitting the egg nog just a wee bit too hard.(By the way, I went into a local Hallmark store back in October to get my wife a birthday card - which takes a while to find just the right one - and the folks in the store were playing the most horrendous version of Carlos Santana's "Black Magic Woman" by some gal who couldn't sing in tune, let alone in tempo. What made this even worse was that it was on an endless repeat cycle, replaying itself over and over and over and over and over - ad nauseum - or should I say, "no need to add nausea.")In my opinion, the only real good Christmas recording to come out in the last 30 years or so is the one by Bare Naked Ladies - and just about anything by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The rest just don't cut it, regardless of genre; they all stink because it's all about money and ego.I think I'm going to start wearing my iPod into stores. To Hell with them if they don't like it.(Cross-posted at my home site, collisionbend.) ed/pub:NB

Will Kessel is a writer, blogger and free-lance web designer/developer living in Cleveland, Ohio.

Black Tuesday

Will Kessel — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 14:48:07 EST

Today is Black Tuesday for me.Jimm Lasser at Speak Up wrote most eloquently about what it is like to lose your job, so I won't even try at this moment to match his grace; let's just leave it at the point where I'm still deciding what to do for the next couple of days.And how to break the news to my bride. She'll divorce me for sure.This is not to say that all was peaches and cream at Optiem - it's never perfect anywhere you go - but I did like my job. Sure, I had a personal issue take command of my time a little while back, and I found it difficult to concentrate, but I had made what I thought were significant strides in reclaiming my head space.Evidently, not enough.So it goes.Anyway, I had fun, learned a ton, and met many truly neat people. I hope my next go-round is better.So, I'm back on the market again, this time with more experience and a better picture of what the web world has in store. I'll update my résumé, start gathering company information, start talking more deeply with my network, and get started on getting a new job; just because I'm out at one place doesn't mean that my taste for the work is dulled.So if you know a company in the Northeast Ohio area that needs a Standards-based web developer with the best CSS skills, damned good Photoshop skills, PHP, MySQL, several panoramic photography packages on both Windows and Macintosh, excellent writing skills, MS Office, public speaking, and more, please let me know -- and let them know I'm available.In the meantime, Merry Christmas.(Cross-posted at collisionbend.com.)

Will Kessel is a writer, blogger and free-lance web designer/developer living in Cleveland, Ohio.

Katrina

Will Kessel — Fri, 9 Sep 2005 01:33:20 EDT

Oh, here we go, it's already started.You had to figure that the commissions were going to start playing the "Cover My Ass" game -- sooner or later.Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has been arguing for days now that no one foresaw this disaster, which is patently false, and in this writer's opinion, an obvious lie. Chertoff is obviouosly playing the "if you repeat a falsehood often enough, it eventually becomes the truth." (Via boingboing.)Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is waffling on the issue, at first demanding a congressional review, and later blaming local and regional officials, pointing out that Alabama and Mississippi responded better with their Republican governors than Louisiana did with their Democrat governor.Now, before you say that I'm spinning this, read the article again; that's exactly what he's saying: Democrats failed us with Katrina. More fingerpointing, and this time it's political. Wow.What amazed me most about the entire Katrina event was how quickly and efficiently the news media infiltrated the area -- they knew what was coming. The media has consistently moved assets into and around the area, broadcasting all the while.The recovery agencies, however, are reporting: 1) they are stunned by the devastation; 2) their lines of communication are down; 3) the agencies aren't communicating with each other; 4) Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is incompetent and unqualified for the job he holds; 5) people are shooting at them.Here's what I know about organizations: generally, when you see something going on at the bottom, it's also going on at the top. If the response teams are overwhelmed, disorganized, and miscommunicating (or refusing to communicate) then the top of the chain (the US Congress, the President, state and local governments) are just as overwhelmed, disorganized, and miscommunicating (or refusing to communicate). Blame at the bottom, blame at the top, and vice versa.Meanwhile, they are still struggling to evacuate the city. It's filled with rotten, vile and poisonous water. And the blame game continues. Interestingly, the American public is not in as much denial as our government (with a few notable exceptions). So why do we elect these asshats, anyway?(Cross-posted at www.collisionbend.com)ed: JH

Will Kessel is a writer, blogger and free-lance web designer/developer living in Cleveland, Ohio.

Fear

Will Kessel — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 07:25:36 EDT

I have a sister-in-law who is gephyrophobic. That is, she's afraid of crossing bridges. She related an incident once where she and my brother were driving somewhere on a vacation, and she had to drive over a very long bridge. I knew the bridge she was talking about, having been across it many times in my youth, and I didn't think it was anywhere near as long as she portrayed it, but...She related how the bridge seemed to get narrower and narrower, how her palms began to sweat and her breath shorten. Eventually, my brother had to reach over and hold the steering wheel. She knows it's an irrational fear, yet she has it anyway.Moreover, I once dated a woman that may have been eremophobic (afraid of being alone) and/or anuptaphobic (afraid of staying single). But, in the end, she turned out to be quite gamophobic (afraid of marriage). Alas, poor Yorick...Now, fear sells -- terrifically. As a race, we have covered an enormous amount of fear in film: achluophobia (fear of darkness or the dark -- "Just don't turn out the lights" -- I don't remember the movie -- Blair Witch, perhaps?); homichlophobia (fear of fog -- The Fog); arachnophobia (fear of spiders -- Arachnophobia); satanophobia (fear of Satan -- tons of films, but most notably The Exorcist and Omen, although plenty of Stephen King films and books fall into this category); selachophobia (fear of sharks -- Jaws); suriphobia (fear of mice or rats -- Willard and Ben); triskaidekaphobia (the number 13) in numerous Alfred Hitchcock films, and paraskavedekatriaphobia (Friday the 13th -- Friday the 13th series) -- just to name a few.The Exorcist and Omen, notably, also orbit around theologicophobia (fear of theology), papaphobia (fear of the Pope), theophobia (fear of gods or religion), hadephobia (fear of hell), as well as uranophobia (fear of heaven). I think there must be a little of this in everybody, as these two movies seem to scare the pants off almost everyone that sees them. At least, everyone that I know.In my travels, I have never encountered anyone who was ablutophobic (afraid of washing, bathing, or cleaning), cyprianophobic (afraid of venereal diseases and STDs -- well, I'm afraid of STDs, aren't you?), or arachibutyrophobic (afraid of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth). And I can't imagine being urophobic (afraid of urinating); that would be horrifyingly painful...And in a previous post, I postulated that our fair city, Cleveland, Ohio, is most likely sophophobic (afraid of learning), cenophobic (afraid of new things or ideas), or possibly ideophobic (afraid of ideas in general), though not exactly in these terms.Now, my family isn't devoid of fear. My bride, quite possibly, is ataxophobic (afraid of disorder or untidiness), definitely atelophobic (afraid of imperfection), and somewhat phonophobic (afraid of noises and/or telephones -- she's always asking me, "what was that noise?" and she never answers the phone; she avoids it whenever possible).Of course, she comes by this honestly: her mother is (and she admits this freely), astrapophobic (afraid of thunder and lightning -- a.k.a. ceraunophobia and/or keraunophobia), climacophobic (afraid of climbing stairs, or falling down stairs), and most decidedly amaxophobic (afraid of riding in a car). Fortunately, I'm not pentheraphobic (afraid of the mother-in-law); I just hate driving her around with her foot constantly on the imaginary brake pedal, taking deep breaths whenever I pull out into traffic -- even with a half-mile clearance either way...And I am not without my own foibles. I have terrible aeroacrophobia (I'm afraid of open high places, unless my feet are firmly planted on the ground), because I'm basiphobic (afraid of falling). This is not the same as illyngophobia (fear of vertigo or feeling dizzy when looking down) as I don't fear the vertigo or the dizzyness when looking down -- I experience vertigo and get dizzy when looking down from heights because of my basiphobia.Now, don't confuse this with batophobia (a fear of heights or being close to high buildings) or hypsiphobia (fear of height), because I can sit in an enclosed space, such as an airplane at 38,000 feet, or behind a large, firm concrete wall -- like on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, 86 floors above Madison Avenue -- and have no symptoms at all. My fear is falling, plain and simple.I remember attending Cleveland Indians Winterfest one year, on the 57th floor of the Key Tower on Public Square. I walked over to a window and looked down at a bus that looked to me like a Matchbox toy. I saw little kids sprinting around, narrowly dodging the windows, which jolted me a bit; I then tapped on the floor-to-ceiling-sized window, which was just large enough to allow my body to pass through. I didn't hear the "thunk" I expected, but a rather disconcerting "tink-tink" of a 1/4-inch-thick glass wafer. I ended up standing in the elevator corridor, eyes tightly shut, waiting for the next car with my back pressed firmly against the outside of the elevator tube. I couldn't relax until I was outside, standing right next to the very spot the bus had occupied moments before.Further, I'm slightly cholerophobic (afraid of anger), but not bogyphobic (afraid of the bogeyman); I'm also naturally slightly apiphobic and spheksophobic (bees and wasps, respectively), as I'm allergic to their stings, but not flatulophobic (I'll let you guess on this one) or logophobic (afraid of words) or cyberphobic (afraid of computers or working on a computer). Of course, if I were cyberphobic, I'd probably also suffer from an as-of-yet-unknown phobia, like defenestraphobia, which is the fear of throwing things out of a window, or fear of being thrown out a window, or fear of things thrown out of windows, or fear of windows themselves -- which would include a fear of Microsoft Windows, naturally.(Also posted at my web site.)Ed/Pub:LM

Will Kessel is a writer, blogger and free-lance web designer/developer living in Cleveland, Ohio.

Disposable People

Will Kessel — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 06:47:19 EDT

(NOTE: This event actually happened on the 11th of August last year. At the time, I was a laid-off web designer, my unemployment compensation had run out, and I found myself working a 24-hour convenience store to help pay the bills -- not an uncommon occurrence after the "Dot-Bomb." I have since found enjoyable employment in my field and no longer work at the convenience store.)I wandered into work tonight to get the new schedule and a pick up a beer or two. The place was totally jammed, and it was almost impossible to get a parking space, let alone a spot in the line inside. I entered and took a spot at the end of the line, about the 20th person or so. One person worked the counter, and the other person was busy mopping the floor.Just as I entered the line, the gal behind the counter called to her co-worker that she needed help; evidently, this crowd gathered in a flash. The guy looked up, plunked the mop into the bucket, and uttered the four-letter "f-bomb" as he walked back.Well, some lady right ahead of me complained about his "language" to the gal at the counter -- after her sale was completed. I stepped up to the counter, placed my beer in front of the clerk and began discussing it with the woman, identifying myself as an employee.I agreed with her about the gentleman's language, that it was inappropriate, and told her that I would talk with him about it. Well, she went on about it, nose high in the air, calling the employees "uneducated misfits." I couldn't resist the temptation...I explained to her that just about everyone that worked at that particular store had been laid off from other, higher-paying jobs: the guy she complained about was a computer programmer; the gal behind the counter was a nurse; we have a former office manager, two other computer professionals, two retirees, a graphic artist and me, a web designer, working there at this particular time. I told her that he really cared about doing a proper job, and that I understood his momentary frustration. I also told her that she was welcome to fill out a comment card and mail it in to our corporate offices, and they would dispense the appropriate discipline.She declined and went on her way, seemingly intent that she had gotten her point across. She did, but I don't think she quite understood it; people who marginalize others rarely do: they don't value or respect human life -- even their own.I started thinking about how we are losing jobs daily to overseas competition, how people are losing their homes and having to do with less because the only jobs available are service-oriented jobs that pay substantially less, and how little some people are concerned about this situation; it's a serious situation that everyone in the country should fear: disposable people.George Bush once said something about "the 'haves' and the 'have-mores'." He was talking about the upper class, and not about the middle or lower classes; I'm surely not a "have" or a "have-more": I have been aced out of two jobs since 9/11, and not because I couldn't perform. I took the job at the store only because I have a mortgage to pay, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let the bank take my house away.This event brought to mind a Star Trek Next Generation episode where Commander Data (the android) was ruled a machine and therefore property of Starfleet. Guinan (played by Whoopi Goldberg) told Captain Picard that if they were to accept the ruling which allowed Starfleet to create a race of androids like Data, then they would have succeeded in creating a whole race of disposable people.I have unwillingly become one of those disposable people, because I am neither a "have" nor a "have-more."In the STNG episode, Guinan was talking about slavery.That's the last thing we, as an "enlightened society," need.

Will Kessel is a writer, blogger and free-lance web designer/developer living in Cleveland, Ohio.