If it’s free why should I pay for it?

Posted by Eric – November 16, 2010

free xm radio

Give it away for free!

My car came pre-installed with an XM satellite radio. Every few months I get new offers/pleas to re-activate my radio. Sirius-XM offers two weeks free. They also offer 5 months of service for $20. $20 is a great deal for someone who will use the service a lot more than I do. Beyond just my disinterest in subscribing, I wonder if Sirius-XM will still be operating in the long-term.

Offering a free trial is a good way to gain more business but I think Sirius-XM has made this offer so often that it doesn’t gain them anything. I listened to XM last year when they gave it away during the Christmas season.  I enjoyed it while the free trial was there but I still didn’t care to subscribe. During the third quarter of this year the service added 334,000 subscribers. Though these subscribers likely aren’t worth much since they probably came in via deeply discounted offers like the one I have.

I don’t know if satellite radio is going to work in the long-term but it is silly to give away free service so often.

Manson?

Posted by Eric – October 26, 2010

As seen in Hopkinsville, this vanity license plate reads “MANSON”. It’s up to the reader to decide whether the driver prefers Marilyn or Charles. Either MM or CM are equally disturbing to me.

If somebody has any ideas what ‘MANSON’ could mean in a different context. I am interested, but I don’t wish to publicly out the owner.

vanity plate manson

Vanity Plate: MANSON

Rand Paul comes to Hopkinsville

Posted by Eric – October 15, 2010

This is a teaser video for the big Rand Paul speech to come later. The upload to youtube failed last night and I was only able to post this sweep of the crowd that came to the TEA party. Check back later!

Updated: The video of Dr. Paul’s speech is now online.

Newspaper Fail

Posted by Eric – October 2, 2010

The story about a gun being brought into Christian County High School was buried on page A6. While the headline for the same day trumpeted the failing test scores at CCHS. FAIL!

Headline fail

Headline fail

Too Dang Early

Posted by Eric – September 25, 2010

As seen on September 25, 2010 at the JC Penny in Hopkinsville. It is too d— early to be putting up Christmas anywhere.

Christmas decor

Christmas Decor in September

Murano Passes Aggressive Crash Test

Posted by Eric – August 26, 2010

Murano Post office

Credit to Danny Vowell - KNE

Early this morning, an elderly woman drove her Nissan Murano through the front door of the Hopkinsville Post Office. Neither the driver or USPS employees were seriously injured. This incident raises several questions. Why is it so common for people to crash their cars into buildings while they are maneuvering in a parking lot? Elderly drivers often have this problem but it is not exclusive to the elderly.

Murano Exit

Credit to Danny Vowell - KNE

Another question I have is why did the people on-scene turn the vehicle around inside the building and drive it out the same way it came in? Wouldn’t you expect they’d put the car in neutral and pull it out backwards with a winch? Finally, we should give credit to the Nissan Motor company for building such a sturdy vehicle. The Murano was completely undamaged except for a dent in the bumper on the left side and the black molding under the bumper was broken.

I took these when I left work the same afternoon. There was already a construction guy there planning how to make repairs.

Suffer the Consequences of Political Correctness

Posted by Eric – August 11, 2010

In April of this year the Transportation Director for Christian County Public Schools was terminated due to allegations of sexual harrassment. The Board of Education did not even have the courage to say publicly why Elzie Pollard was being canned.

HUNEYCUTT SAID SHE COULD NOT COMMENT ON WHY POLLARD WAS PLACED ON LEAVE OR WHEN HE MIGHT RETURN TO WORK. SHE SAYS IN THE MEANTIME, OFFICIALS ARE WORKING TO FIND SOMEONE TO FILL HIS POSITION.

Roger Kerns was eventually picked as the new Transportation Director. Mr. Kerns redrew the bus routes for the entire county during the two month summer break. It is little wonder that the necessary paperwork was not delivered to the schools on time.

SEVERAL STUDENTS WERE NOT PICKED UP AT ALL YESTERDAY (TUESDAY), WHILE OTHERS DIDN’T ARRIVE AT SCHOOL UNTIL AROUND 11 O’CLOCK AND THEN STUDENTS AT CHRISTIAN COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL WEREN’T ALLOWED TO LEAVE UNTIL AROUND 5 O’CLOCK.
THE ISSUES STEM FROM A CHANGE IN BUS DRIVERS, BUS ROUTES AND NOT HAVING PROPER PAPERWORK AT THE SCHOOLS.
The result of the new, undocumented bus routes is a giant clusterfark that put lives at risk.
WATER WAS PROVIDED TO STUDENTS ON BUSES, A PRECAUTION LINK SAYS WAS TAKEN DUE TO THE EXCESSIVE HEAT, BUT ONE STUDENT WAS TAKEN BY HER PARENTS TO THE HOSPITAL AND WAS TREATED FOR DEHYDRATION.
Mr. Kerns and Superintendent Link are both responsible for how this situation was handled. It is my opinion that the ultimate cause is the fact that fear of lawsuits rule the day. Elzie Pollard was abruptly removed from his position based on the accusation of misconduct without an orderly transfer of responsibility.

God help all of the bus drivers this year. They will get no help from anyone else.

Worse Than Herding Cats

Posted by Eric – August 4, 2010

During the previous weekend, I was up to my neck in a sea of preteens. I was asked to lead a group of children through vacation bible school to each of their stations. The whole experience was an ordeal best left as an annual event because it takes a year to recover from it. ;)

vbs name tag

VBS Name tag