We’re here, we’re poor, but we need a new school

May 1st, 2007 · · Mount Vernon No comments - Tags: ,

Just a little post to rant about the backward-ass way this county thinks…

Jefferson County has the highest crime rate south of Interstate 70.


That was a statement from Jefferson County Sheriff Roger Mulch in today’s paper about possible budget cuts as the county is broke.

Less than 30 days ago, a small group of citizens were trying to convince us that we could afford a new high school. How can we afford to pay for a new school when we can’t even afford to keep them safe?

I know that more police does not necessarily equal more safety, cutting officers from a small force is definitely not the answer either.


One of the “FAQ”s on the mvthsonthemove.com site was that the county instituted a small tax to pay for whatever, and the new tax by Mount Vernon City would not be noticed once that tax was gone. Also, they were quick to point out that there was no property tax to pay for the jail.

First, the county can choose to keep their tax in place and renew it. Then the tax just keeps on going. Huh, guess they would just say “It’s not our fault, it’s the county’s fault” when it was renewed AND we had the extra tax to pay for the city’s “donation” and the new property tax.

Second, they state there is no property tax to pay for the jail, but that is to distract you from the current tax that IS paying for the jail that is losing money.

Just a little note about how a select few were trying to push a new high school on the citizens with disinformation and well-spun propaganda.

Another stellar blog month (for me)

May 1st, 2007 · · Mount Vernon No comments - Tags:

1759. That’s how many unique hits I had on my site, not including search engines, in April.

Yeah, if you’ve been around the web long, that’s not really impressive. To me though, I’m kinda proud. Since my blog is not well-known, and probably never will be, that’s a great number. I have noticed some interesting things in the stats for last month:

1. Most of the followed links that come in are from the Register-News forums.
2. The hits that I get are over 1/2 from our local area (using IP lookups).
3. The people that come and look usually come back (judging by IPs again).
4. About 1/2 of my hits are from direct links (bookmarks or typing the address in).
5. Of the Google searches, I am still getting lots of hits from “mvths on the move”.
6. Of the Google searches, most of my hits are for the local blog articles, not the geek ones.
7. Most of my readers (63.3%) use Windows, followed by Linux (28%), and Mac (0.7%).
8. Most of my visitors (38.3%) use Firefox, followed closely by Internet Explorer (27.6%), and Mozilla (9.2%) is third.

Just some worthless facts that I thought I would share with you. Mostly, I’m excited that I appear to have a little readership developed around here. Unfortunately, not too many people are using the comments, but that comes with time I suppose.

Please subscribe via the RSS links in the right hand column, and use the comments section. Say what you want, but try to keep it PG-13. There may be kids aboot.
🙂

Saint Louis Cardinals tickets

April 30th, 2007 · · Uncategorized No comments - Tags:

Does anyone know how to get some decent tickets to a Cardinals’ game, barring a miracle?

For most of my adult life I have been trying to get within 20 rows of the field (preferably infield). In the beginning, I pinned my hopes on winning a contest on the radio or something. Then, I realized that was like winning the lottery. I did manage to win some tickets to Holiday World though, that I gave away to some family that wanted to go there for a vacation.

That brings me to where I am now – married, great wife and kids, mortgage, bills, etc. I keep trying to find tickets everywhere, the way grown-ups do, with cash. Unfortunately, the wait for season tickets is outlandish. I’m sure that a some of them are owned by real people who waited their turn or got lucky and scored some good seats, but I’ve read/heard that most of them are owned by corporations. WTF?

Sure, companies need to entertain clients while in town, and maybe drop them on employees from time to time. Wasn’t baseball built on the average guy taking an afternoon off to go see a game with his buddies or his son? How fair is it to the millions of fans across the US to have no hope of seeing a game from closer than 200 feet? It is so bad, one needs binoculars to see what is actually happening.

I guess I could also jump on StubHub.com and find something on there. If I do that though, I run the risk of paying 100-400% more than their face value. I know, we are in a capitalist society and the dollar runs everything. I just wish that I could happen across some decent seats, take my family to a game, and be able to see the action from a decent perspective.

Yeah, I’m whining. Yeah, I’m almost 30 and wishing for good seats to a baseball game. I just love the game and my Cardinals. Perhaps someday I will be able to afford tickets from a scalper, catch BP, and take my son to a game that he’ll actually be able to see and enjoy. For now, I’ll keep going to a few games each year in the nosebleed section, cheer on my team, and enjoy as best I can from my seat.

Oh, and I’m still entering ticket contests like a madman.

Dilbert is mocking blogs, but its right

April 27th, 2007 · · General, Technology No comments - Tags: ,

This strip from the Dilbert comics page seems to be accurate in what executives think of blogs. To a lot of people, it is something to jump into and do just because it is hot at the moment. Unfortunately this is what I have witnessed more often than not in the blogosphere.

Don’t think that all blogs are bad and don’t do positive communication, a lot of them are great.

Bloggers have been around forever, they just were called “freelance reporters” or something similar. I am not saying all reporters are or should be bloggers, and most bloggers should NOT be reporters. However, there are definite similarities between reporters and bloggers. Some reporters are bloggers, and some bloggers are reporters, but one does not dictate the other automatically.

Blogging is simply an online outlet for your writing. It could be that you are reporting/commenting on news or your profession. Perhaps you are an executive and want to connect on a more personal level with your customers or employees.

Whatever your reason, blogging is an effective way to get your message out however you feel. Unfortunately this toon illustrates what so many executives do instead of actually using a blog to communicate. They have a person post some drivel and sign their name.

I’m new to this game as well, but I couldn’t imagine being so fake as making someone else imagine something to put on here.

Google is establishing another server farm

April 26th, 2007 · · Mount Vernon, Technology No comments - Tags: , , ,

Google is going to have some major incentives thrown at it from Iowa. Why can we not get one of these in Illinois? Specifically, down here in the “poor” area of southern Illinois?

The requirements for a site would seem to be land and electricity. We have LOTS of land, and I have yet to find somewhere (recently) that doesn’t have electricity or pretty close access.

This is a great opportunity to bring major construction dollars and continuing employment of a white-collar industry to our area. Our government should be chomping at the bit to get an industry like this to move into our area, but I haven’t heard anything yet…