Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Bill Bennet Sheep Mollester

Viewers of the Republican Debate postgame show got treated to a textbook Drudge/GOP smear courtesy of Bill Bennett with an assist from Anderson Cooper.

Asked about Romney's answer about his previous statement that he looked forward to the day gays would serve openly, Bill claimed the answer was good and immediately changed the subject by stating that he had gotten a bunch of emails that the man who asked the original question was a member of Hillary Clinton's steering committee. Of course, Bennett wasn't saying he was, just that he was getting emails. And instead of calling that BS out Cooper suggested that he didn't know that and it should have been disclosed.

This kind of smear is horrible because even if proven false, the smear will still have a net effect of lowering a voter opinion of the smearer.

Well, I heard Bill Bennett mollests sheep. I am not saying it's true. In fact I perosnally doubt it. But that's what people I won't identify in emails have told me.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Take a page from the women

So we are getting a lot of applications to rep Gin Optics which is exciting. There's no way we'll be able to actually interview all the applicants. Of course, we may find none are cool. But a trend has emerged that all you guys out there looking for jobs should take note of. Every women has tailored the resumer/cover letter to us. Only 1 guy has, the rest have just sent out a resume or a form letter.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Battlestar Galactica: Razor

I finally sat down and watched Razor last night. I liked it; although I was not as excited about the old-school Cylons as everyone else seems to be. One thing really struck me as unrealistic.

*Spoiler Alert*

The 3 big Cain's a sadistic killer moments were the execution of her XO, the instructions to torture Gina-6 and the order to execute civilians.

In the real world, I could see the last 2 actually happening. Similar torture has happened and probably is still happening in Iraq. And it would seem even easier given the Cylons wouldn't be viewed as people, rather robots. Given the stress of the Colonial-genocide and the previous potrayal of inter-colony bogotry the execution of civilians is not impossible to imagine under the fear of being executed yourself for insubordination.

But, I can't think of an instance were an XO was executed for refusing to obey an order. I mean, I can see Cain's character doing it. But I would think that well trained colonial officers would have done something like take Cain into custody. Maybe if there was a history of the XO and Cain butting heads; but so early on and in a situation that had not yet spiraled out of control. Maybe I am naive but it didn't strike me as possible. Does anyone know of any similar, real life examples in modern history?

Sunday, November 25, 2007

How to write a bad review

Here's something I think many of you know. I am not a fan of product reviews by "official" reviewers. Why? Well a couple things. First, my experience is that "official" reviewers tend to have vested interests in their reviews (i.e. advertising or free schwag) that they don't reveal. And, I rarely find reviewers more knowledgable than your average joe. In fact, I often find official reviewers making value judgements based on their own stupidity whereas the average joe (say Stoked) might actually get edumacated first.

Case in point, while we were in CA this summer I picked up a copy of Wired Magazine. The magazine had a sunglass review. I think the 3 brands were Oakley, Smith and Tifosi. Both Oakley & Smith got very good reviews. Which made sense because I could tell the reviewer was partly repeating the press release that comes with the glasses. Similarly, I've had reviews done of our glasses were the reviewer basically published our press release verbatim. On the otherhand Tifosi got slammed. Why? Because the reviewer felt the lenses were not dark enough for sunglass use. To which I thought.. duh. You are using the low light lens moron. Switch out for the darker lens. To me, that's user error not the product.

Now, if the reviewer wanted an orange sunglass lens and Tifosi didn't make it it might be legitimate to say "I would have liked a orange Sunglass lens, so was disappointed in the selection of lens colors available" but then they need to say the same thing about Smith.

So with that said, wtf is this review about? Go read it. For the record, I am not upset that they think the Lynx are ugly. Our philosophy is to make a variety of glasses that have different profiles. We don't want to do a bunch of similar, neutral looking glasses. We only need to have 1 or 2 models that look good to a customer. Everyone's different.

What annoys me is that the philosophy clearly worked because he casually states early that the other glasses got lifted quick. One pair wasn't a hit, so what do they do? They spend the review on that pair. What about all those pairs people liked? Where's the review of those models?

2nd, he makes a point in the article that they got these for free*. He doesn't mention that they got the product by claiming they were represented a couple shops and were going to place an order. But, nevertheless, way to devalue the product right off the bat guys.

And then, the statement about so-so optical quality is just an absolute WTF moment. You can say the glasses are ugly (personal opinion). You can say you don't like the adjustability. But so-so optics?????? OMG. That's just ignorant and it's not a personal opinion. The lenses are freakin' Carl Zeiss. Now a lot of optical types may argue whether or not you can get as good a quality cheaper from other companies. But no one in the industry thinks Zeiss is so-so.


*OK, so I am also a little annoyed because these were given away on a sales reps discretion after I had specifically said no spiffs. The stuff ain't cheap to make (see those Zeiss lenses) and most shops that are serious (i.e. care about customers and quality products) are willing to pay for product to test. The sales rep did it because the reviewers claimed to represent a couple shops and convinced him they would pick up the line. So I feel a)irritated that the rep spiffed product and b)irritated the reviewer didn't come correct in terms of promises (opening shops) or use (actually reviewing the other models).

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Why I don't blindly trust authority

As many of you know, I have a strong problem with appeals to authority. Here's an example of why:

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

You know who you are

To that special someone I am not allowed to name for giving me that special stuff I am not allowed to tell anyone about. Thanks. And Mrs. Someone's slippers are hot.

Represent!

Thanks to the Southland Times evidence of Bissell Pro Cycling's (home of NW fan fave Omer "Magic" Kem) trip to New Zealand exist in abundance. 4 stage wins. Word.






For those who are interested Jeremy Vennel and Tom Zirbel are sporting the Pewter Ohop w/ Clear+ lenses (they get so dark!)

Scott seems is wearing the Silver/Grey StunGunner w/ HD Golf lens.

Update I -
Correction. 5 Stage wins for Bissell (FKA Priority Health). Somehow I missed the results from Stage El Finality. Maybe it was cause of Zirbel's poor fashion sense.


Thursday, November 08, 2007

He shoots...

And hits PDog. OAD has thrown down the guantlet, promising to have himself bodypainted with the Gin Optics logo and race all year naked (well, bodypainted) if I can break 15 minutes in the infamous CycleU TT.

Or something like that.

Sadly, no. I may start doing the InTTs again but my fitness/motivation is pretty darn low. Owning a new business and a new kid has definitely taken its toll on my training discipline (I never had food discipline).

But, I suppose if I did a tandem TT.....

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

PruDog to Dems

PruDog to dems: get a spine and vote to debate impeachment. This just made you look weak. The Republicans are going to paint you as unamerican, terrorist lovers no matter what you do. And frankly, only 27% of America cares what the Republicans think anymore anyway.

Personal to Strangerlater

I think they are talking to you.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Ashance

Sorry OAD, but I ain't commenting on Ashley-Lance until one of them becomes relevent again.

Update: Apparently calling both Ashley and Lance irrelevent isn't enough for O-A-D. But I ain't getting sucked in. Instead, I'll send you over to Jeff's blog. While there O-A-D can burst his bubble. I can't do it. I still remember how sad O-T-O-A-D felt when his bubble got burst by Tyler.