WTFisconsin: Charging for CCAP?

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so how does the Wisconsin State Assembly respond? By proposing a charge for the popular online court records database -- CCAP -- on October 1.

While I agree that there are reforms that should be made to this service (if people are truly listed who have been falsely accused, by all means fix that), I disagree that a charge should be implemented.

Granted the fee is only $10, but I doubt people will pay that to look up their dates, as all the single women I know do now. That's unfortunate because that $10 could save a life if the dude you're about to go out with has four restraining orders against him. I could see lawmakers responding and saying "well, we won't charge shelters, women's centers, etc." Well the thing is, lawmakers, domestic violence knows no class or social status. I can't forsee a young professional saying "oh, I don't have $10, but I'll swing down to the shelter and check out this guy."

Please, keep CCAP free for all to use.

WTFWisconsin: Intermodal Insanity

The letter I just sent to Amtrak:

I need to be reimbursed for the $9 surcharge I had to pay on the Amtrak Hiawatha Line from Milwaukee to Chicago at 8 am on Friday, August 7.

Let me start out by saying that I love Amtrak. I am always in favor of the system getting additional funding and would love to see the US invest in a european style rail network. Unfortunately, my experience this morning more closely resembled the organization of train travel in India (translate ridiculous) versus an efficient system.

I arrived at the Milwaukee Intermodal Station with 20 minutes to get my ticket to Chicago. This is usually plenty of time. I walked inside to find three HUGE lines. One was expected--the line to board the train. Another was somewhat expected--the line for the staffed ticket counter. The third was mindblowingly unexplainable--the one to use the automatic ticket kiosks. Then it was explained two-fold, both reasons that were completely avoidable. Two simple solutions that could have prevented Amtrak from severely angering dozens of customers as well as inconveniencing it's own onboard staff.

I misspoke when I said kiosks, plural. For some ungodly reason there is only  ONE automatic ticket kiosk for the 2nd busiest train line in the United States. This seems woefully inadequate. To make matters worse, those passengers who had the foresight to purchase tickets online in advance were required to stand in this line as well. How in any universe does this make sense?

To make matters worse, the ticketing staff did not assist in reassuring the growing, and increasingly disgruntled, crowds that everyone would get on the train. Much later, the conductor (lecturing those of us who purchased onboard) said that he held the train two extra minutes for the lines to clear. I'm certain it would have been longer of several of us had not decided to purchase on board versus risk missing the train. The fact that delaying the train was even feasible was NEVER communicated to us. In fact it was another PASSENGER who pointed out you could buy onboard.

I don't think I should be charged extra for Amtrak's faulty ticketing logistics. I have learned a lesson about arriving earlier, but moreso I hope Amtrak learns a lesson about adding kiosks and true e-ticketing.

Luckily I have plans to take Megabus back on Sunday. I only have to show them a confirmation number from their website.

social media madness: iPhone!

I lost my phone yesterday. I lost everyone's number. I only remember the numbers I reguarly dial at work, or dialed in the past. So that basically means my boss's cell phone, our photography vendor, my parents, my best friend's parents, my longest best friend in Milwaukee and my recent ex-boyfriend.

Fortunately others have been filling in the blanks for me, so I can fill up my new iPhone (!!!) with contacts. I need to upgrade my Mac before I can sync with Google, so I have to put folks in manually for now. It's so easy though!

A couple of problems I thought I'd put out to the blogosphere:

1) Is it just me or is AT&T's 3G network really unreliable in downtown Milwaukee? Sometimes the phone just sits for minutes on end with the little wheel spinning and doesn't connect.

2) Does anyone know if you can bundle AT&T wireless phone service (the iPhone) with home internet service? Their website is a clusterf--k and then has this major fail:




Yup, that "email" is phone number.

thankful tuesdays: second chances

I'm still a little too tired and emotional to write everything out, but I can't let this Tuesday pass by without giving extreme thanks for having a second chance with my dad. On Sunday night I got the call no kid ever wants to get -- that your parent is in the hospital after having a heart attack.

Luckily, my dad had the most minimal kind of heart attack you can have. No permanent damage, no major surgery required, not even technically cardiac arrest. Although there probably wasn't much he could've done to prevent it (he got a clean bill of health at the doctor just a couple weeks ago and has been dieting and exercising), what he DID do when the symptoms started probably saved his life. Instead of ignoring the dizziness and the pain in his shoulder, within a short time after the signs began, Dad asked Mom to drive him to the hospital. SO much less traumatic than the whole collapsing/ambulance calling thing. I guess it's a good thing that the non-dramatic parent had the first life-threatening injury. My mom just falls into people's salads.

Having watch my best friend lose her dad a couple of years ago and a good friend lose her dad just a couple of weeks ago, it would be a disservice to them to NOT pump up my daughter duties. I may be 2,000 miles away, but watch out Dad, I'm stepping it up. Of course, I'm going to have to get creative when the parents go to Italy for a month (fingers-crossed the doctors have tentatively cleared it), but my brother and I can definitely put our heads together.

At any rate, free-form rambling aside, if you have a dad, please go give him a huge hug. Don't wait until Father's Day!

(Oh, and I'm also super thankful for fancy new technology -- who would've thought minor heart surgery would keep my dad at St. Vincent's for a shorter time period than my appendectomy in '94)

music madness: "don't" stop the music - fun with the iPod

The other day I had a hankering for Don't Stop Believin'. Don't judge. When I scrolled to it by song title (I rarely use this function) on my iPod, I found I had two versions. The original, of course and also a cover by Marnie Stern. This got me curious about what other "don't" songs I had on my iPod. Turns out quite a few--it took me about a week to get through the list. I thought all that effort could make for an interesting blog exercise. Since I'm still laying low, what better way to spend my Friday evening than doing a little track-by-track for you?

1. Don't Be On With Her - Miami Horror: Start off the don'ts with a little dance, shall we?
   
2. Don't Be Shy - Cat Stevens: One time my dad organized his and my mom's vinyl collections into "crap" and "not crap." I think Cat Stevens was one of the few of Mom's folk records that made the "not crap" pile. I agree. I know people like Sheryl Crow like to cover him, but there's something about songs like this that make you smile.
3. Don't Be Shy - Spektrum: This song is truly awful. It looks like I acquired it from a free iTunes download. I now have an extra 3.2 MB on my iPod.
4. Don't Care - Threatmantics: I have no idea where this catchy tune by this catchy Welsh band came from, but it's certainly, uh, catchy! I'll keep it.
5. Don't Change - INXS: Shut up. INXS 4 Eva! Besides, I dare you to watch the video and not lick Michael Hutchence in all his '80s glory.
6. Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind) - Loretta Lynn: This ended up on my iPod after Pitchfork ran their "Best of the '60s" feature a few years ago. I really wish I'd listened Loretta's tale a little closer -- or posted the lyrics on my back door.
7. Don't Dance - Hot Chip: Hot Chip's albums flow together though and I think out of context some songs just start off weird, which I think is the case with this one. The intro seems really out of place following Loretta Lynn, but once you get into the meat of the song it's quite excellent.
   
8. Don't Dream It's Over - Crowded House: Hey now, hey now, stop mocking me. Besides, this is apparently the 7th best Australian song of ALL TIME (at least through 2001).
9. Don't Fear - Maps: Another mysterious appearance, but I'm glad it's here. A very pretty song. Fairly cool video too.
   
10. Don't Forget Me - Way Out West: Yeah, yeah, it's from the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack, but I'm allowed to have a girly side, okay? I have a soft side for sad, haunting music.
    
11. Don't Give Up - Noisettes: I suspect this may also be a Grey's addition. I'm also allowed to have girly pop-punk too.
    
12. Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Sergio Mendes: Look! Bossa Nova! I'm soooo super cool. Actually this song is pretty damn sweet. And it takes me away to swinging '60s Brazil, where I bet it's a lot warmer than Milwaukee (even with our 50 degree heat wave baby, yeah.) Sorry I couldn't find a link. Elton John dominates in this category.
    
13. Don't Leave - Frankel: Quite an enjoyable tune from an eMusic sampler. Can't seem to find a link, but trust me, it's nice.
    
14. Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston: Do I need to explain one of the best songs of all time? I think not. Dare you not to boogie down or sing along. I also believe this song is about 20 minutes too short.
    
15. Don't Leave the City - Magnolia Electric Co.: Here's a depressingly beautiful song that it's cool to like. I would definitely work this into a soundtrack somewhere when I achieve my dream of becoming a soundtrack supervisor.
    
16. Don't Let Go - Pacha Massive: Another tolerable eMusic sampler find. It's sort of Spanglish jam in a Santana meets the Cardigans sort of way.
    
17. Don't Let Him Waste Your Time - Jarvis Cocker: Jarvis is one of my musical crushes and I wish I'd listened to him along with Loretta Lynn.
    
18. Don't Let It Get You Down - Spoon: Spoon does not get me down. Especially when their current homepage links to about 30 YouTube videos of Obama celebrations! Spoon apparently really likes "don't" songs though, as this is the first of several on this list. I am huge fan of "old" Spoon and this track off Kill the Moonlight is one of my faves.
    
19. Don't Let Me Explode - The Hold Steady: Well we already know that this is the best band of all time, so of course this song off Separation Sunday is perfectly fine.
    
20. Don't Let The Sun Go Down - Daniel Johnston: Wow, I seem to be in the hip part of my Don't run at the moment. Let's enjoy this before something embarassing pops up.
    
21. Don't Lie To Me - Big Star: Also essential for any soundtrack I would ever create.
    
22. Don't Look Back In Anger - Oasis: Yeah, we may have temporarily exited Coolsville and traveled to Meghan's obsessions circa 1996. You're definitely singing it in your head right now.
    
23. Don't Make Me A Target - Spoon: Told you there'd be more Spoon. Did I mention it'd also be excellent?
    
24. Don't Mistake Me - Keisha White: You could probably use this song to sell tampons, yogurt or shoes, but you know what, I kinda like it.
    
25. Don't Panic - Coldplay: I liked Coldplay before it was cool to like Coldplay, and definitely way before it was uncool to like Coldplay.
    
26. Don't Read Dostoyevsky - Alaska In Winter: Don't let the band name throw you off, this gorgeous music has nothing to do with Sarah Palin. At least I certainly hope not.
    
27. Don't Sleep In The Subway - Petula Clark: Petula Clark is full of jams. I love this song, not just because of my love of public transit, but because it basically rules. Not wanting your amor to be homeless. Well, that's love. Unfortunately you lose the grand production in the live clip.
    
28. Don't Stop - Girl Talk: One of my favorite tracks off Feed the Animals. It samples Born Slippy and In Between Days for goodness sake!
    
29. Don't Stop Believin' - Journey: The track ultimately responsible for this entire undertaking and several monumental moments in pretty much anyone's life who was a teenager after 1981 to the present. For me it'll always remind me of my trip to France when this got stuck in my friend Dan's head and he used it to teach English to French middle schoolers. He gave them a list of phrases from the song and asked them to write a story: "small-town girl," "midnight train," "city boy"...etc.
    
30. Don't Stop Believin' - Marnie Stern: This chick is so impressive at shredding a guitar, I can allow this cover to coexist peacefully on my iPod.
    
31. Don't Talk Like - Sleater-Kinney: Perhaps Marnie Stern would've never covered Don't Stop Believin' if Sleater-Kinney had never existed. How's that for blowing your mind?
    
32. Don't Tell Me To Do The Math(s) - Los Campesinos!: I'm currently holding a grudge against this awesome Welsh band because they are playing a free show in Madison and ignoring Milwaukee. Still, this song is really brilliant.
    
33. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Bob Dylan: My best friend, Kat, used to play this for me whenever I got bummed out over stupid high school boys. Stupid high school boys were so not worthy of this song. Or of me.
    
34. Don't Try to Fool Me - Miss Li: I'm guessing another Grey's entry. Stop judging.
    
35. Don't Worry Baby - The Beach Boys: My mom hates the Beach Boys, my dad loves them. I think I have to go with Dad on this one.
    
36. Don't You Evah - Spoon: The final Spoon song in the "don'ts." And yeah, two are off the same album. How do you feel about that?
    
37. Don't You Want Me - Human League: You were waiting for it, weren't you? I know I was!
    
38. Don’t Let Stars Keep Us Tangled Up - Cortney Tidwell: Technically this is the Ewan’s Objects In Space remix. It's pretty epic and a solid way to bring us out of this bizarre exercise.

Next listening project will be the "downs." Any other song prefixes you'd like me to tackle?

daily inspiration: my mom's take on the obama inauguration

Although I'm still processing my thoughts and words on the historic significance of this week, I was thrilled to receive an eloquent essay from my mother about Obama's inauguration. I asked her if I could share with you all, so here's her take:

As I sit here tonight, I find myself reflecting on the events of this day. But I also find myself remembering the events that made this day possible.

I was fortunate enough to watch some of the inauguration, but the business of teaching was what needed to be done. However, today everything felt different. Today I was inspired to become a better teacher. Because the future for those I teach is now very real. No longer will I think of a child as just another student who, though full of potential, may not succeed in life because of the color of his skin or her gender. I can truly say for the first time in my career I can look at each student – black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, bi-racial, male or female and think: anything is possible for this child. Anything!

As I stop to think about this day, I am jolted by the realization that is a family of color at home in the White House tonight! There is a man who will wake up tomorrow morning and begin leading what again can become the greatest country in the world. With this man’s guidance, we will be inspired to walk behind him – no WITH him – to build a better America than ever before. He will inspire us to become not only once-again proud Americans, but better people, stronger people, responsible people.

Of course, this would never have been possible without those who stood, and sometimes died, before him. How fitting that he should use Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King as is role models. How fitting that he has called us to service like John F. Kennedy. How wonderful that we feel so inspired to listen, and do.

There were other people of course, perhaps not so great, perhaps just ordinary people, who were just as instrumental in bringing about this day. The children of slaves who continued to labor, making minimum wage, or less, yet quietly instilled a work ethic in their children and their children’s children. The woman who was just too damned tired to walk all the way to the back of the bus. The civil rights workers who stood up for what they knew was right. The African immigrant who came to this country, fell in love and married with a white woman, and produced an extraordinary man. The women who, in the sixties, began to speak up that yes, while their roles of child rearing and homemaking were indeed important, they could do other things just as well, and made all things possible for my generation and those of my daughter’s. These people sometimes quietly, sometimes quite loudly worked for change. But change did come.

I grew up in a time when I would visit the south, and saw the “whites only” signs on the drinking fountains, the front doors of restaurants, the restrooms, and accepted this as just the way it was. I grew up in a time when the “N” word was commonplace. I grew up in a time when young girls were told they couldn’t go to college – that they were just going to get married and raise a family anyway. I grew up in a time when people would’ve laughed heartily if a young black boy said that he would president someday.

Thank God those days are gone – forever! Thank God I was able to see this change. Yes, I can reflect, but I can also look forward to a future that is bright with possibilities as we all move in a new direction. I can hardly wait!

Thanks Mom for sharing! And thanks for making sure I grew up with an open mind, so that I to could celebrate the joy and triumph of the American people this week.

I'll just add that I had the same thought on Tuesday morning when I saw a young mother board the bus with her toddler son. I teared up looking at that kid and realizing "Oh my God, he's never going to know a time where he would have completely dismissed the thought of ever being President of the United States."

As a woman, President Obama (I smile ever time I type or see that) has pleased me this week, sticking up for my rights. He repealed the Global Gag Rule which stripped developing countries of critical reproductive health assistance (you can thank him here). Additionally, the Senate quickly passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, a critical piece of wage discrimination legislation.

Of course, I'm pretty happy about sticking up for the constitution and closing down the torture chambers of Gitmo. And despite the inherited mess of outdated equipment, the embrace of technology the administration has already shown by overhauling the White House website and including a BLOG!

nature, you disappoint me: happy night day!

I was so excited to do the Winter Solstice Candlelight Nature Walk at the Urban Ecology Center. Especially with our fresh foot of snow on the ground, I'm sure it will be a wintery wonderland.

One little thing -- in the next couple hours it's scheduled to drop from the current balmy 27 to a frigid 6 degrees. Accompanied by face-cutting winds and blowing snow.

Yeah, we're wimping out.

Instead we are hitting up Nessun Dorma before going over to Mad Planet for the Lotus Land Records 8th Anniversary Party.

I'll be completely honest the weather is REALLY getting me down this year. Maybe because I have to deal with it alone. Maybe because when all my friends get a snow day I get a crazy work day. Maybe because it's already been a rough winter and the actual solstice isn't until tomorrow!

I just have to remind myself that I'm going to be in warmer climes soon. In two weeks I will be in India where the average temperature is in the high 70s. Even next week I'll be in Portland. Granted the Northwest has been slammed by snow, but I'm guessing it will seem tropical compared to Milwaukee as of late.

And while yes, I am disappointed that nature is preventing me from celebrating her shortest day, I am glad that technology allowed me to locate the best (read: only) full-length sketch comedy episode about the solstice ever made.

milwaukee props: cheese love [madison props actually]

After reading about it on both food and advertising blogs this week, I finally had the time to explore CheeseCupid.com. Created for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, the goal of the site is to educate folks on what cheese to pair with various alcoholic beverages. I will most definitely use this site next time I play hostess, as it's easy to use and covers a very broad range of possibilities.

Props to Madison firm Shine Advertising on making cheese seem damn sexy, something I've know for a long, long time.

I'll be curious to see if this campaign takes on a more social component. The jury is still out on whether online dating is right for me, but if they made a cheese-based dating site, well Gouda-bye preconceived notions.

Yeah, I really just said that.

girl on film: wall-e

I canceled my digital cable just in time for Netflix to add streaming for Mac.

While I've yet to take advantage of that service, I did get the chance to watch Wall-E finally, as it came it the mail yesterday.

I won't spoil anything in this post, but I'll just say that I was beyond relieved that the film did live up to its hype. In fact, it exceeded it.

Granted I don't watch children's movies on a regular basis, but unfortunately I don't think all of them are instilling such amazing messages.

Let's just say if you liked my consumerism post, you'll love Wall-E. Like any Pixar flick be prepared to both laugh out loud and have a box of tissues nearby.

Have you seen Wall-E? What did you think?

social media madness: twitip challenge

I've alluded to Twitter in this blog before and daily I'm finding fantastic new uses for this great tool. A new challenge issued on the blog Twitip.com asks twitterfreaks to make a list of the top 10 influential tweeters in their niche. While I do use twitter to follow many areas, among them marketing/social media and of course transit news, I thought I'd take the challenge to name the Top 10 Milwaukee Insiders you should be following on Twitter.

A couple of caveats to the list are that I'm not including folks who solely or the majority of the time update from Twitterfeed, nor am I listing folks that are twittering just for their 9 to 5. So sorry @onmilwaukee, @bucksdotcom, @newshub, @bigshoesnetwork, etc. you're DQ'd for this one. I'm also only listing folks who regularly tweet, so even though there's some fabulous folks who just joined the scene or who post occasionally, I had to take you off the Top 10.

Surprisingly most of these folks (save for a couple) are ones I've found through Twitter versus in real life, although I think that will be changing as there seems to be real interest in TweetUps and the like. I have however heard of several of them from their day jobs, and really value the information they share on the site, especially in regards to Milwaukee issues.

So here goes in no particular order (pretty much in order I found their tweets. This really is a challenge in that Twitter sucks in managing your followees):

• @augieray
• @JHTaylor
• @Teecycle_Tim
• @muzzleofbees
• @spreenkler
• @KCinpin
• @twoaday
• @compujeramey
• @UWM_CIO
• @littletinyfish

Who am I missing? I'd love to expand this list to the Top 20. After two of the places I went in Chicago last night didn't even have websites, I'm feeling some love for the Milwaukee Social Media Scene.

we've been experiencing technical difficulties

the infallible macbook was down for the count last week, but thanks to a trip to the apple store and the relinquishing of an appointment by nicest woman in the world, "sally," my computer finally starts up again.

regular blogging should resume this week.

thanks for your patience.

They're Heeerrrrrree

Even though it said 5-6 weeks, the business cards I ordered from GigglePrint.com arrived today! Just a little over a week since I ordered them.

My scanner pretty much sucks, but here's proof that they made it. I'm a nerd, I know, but I'm excited to start handing 'em out.

Cheese-us, Can't I be a 21st Century Consumer?

A few months ago I attended the Moo & Brew event at the Milwaukee Public Market. I gathered a lot of brochures that night (in addition to eating delicious cheese and getting smashed on beer samples). Well those brochures littered my living room until tonight when I decided to toss them. Trying to be a responsible consumer -- and salivating over the memory of that tasty evening - I decided to visit the websites of the various vendors I sampled.

Good God. It was like taking a virtual road trip to 1997.

I'm about halfway through my pile. I have found no blogs or RSS feeds, only a couple e-newsletters and only a couple modernly designed sites. I know this is Wisconsin and people have lower expectations, but come on!

It did make me realize that I really need to push the blog concept at work. I may have a lot going on, but I gotta find time in my day to make that happen. I hope no one is going to our website and wondering where the interaction is.

Accidental Wisconsinite Business Cards!

I am a sucker for free stuff.

Also, for years I've been pondering getting business cards for personal use. (So people I met socially could have my cell and gmail versus my work number and work email).

My prayers were finally answered and tonight I found a site called Giggle Print that offers 250 free business cards with just a $5.25 fee. For those not overly graphically inclined you just use a template to plug in your info and you can preview everything right there.

I found out about Giggle Print (yeah, kind of a goofy name) through BzzAgent, which is an online-based viral marketing project I've done for about three years now.

Anyway, I'd say about 80% of the stuff I try out I don't bother others with, but this was such a unique site I thought I would share.

PLUS, now if I see you out and about I can give you a business card. Woohoo!

Visit GigglePrint

Naughty iPod? Give it a spanking!!

Still insanely frustrated by my iPod refusal to connect to my computer and the Apple store's confirmation that there was no fix other than restoring it and losing all of my music, I decided to poke around on my newfound love, LifeHacker.com.

Browsing all posts tagged with iPod, I came across a random one from 2007 that instructed you how to do your own surgery on your pod. However, this of course would erase all your music.

I thought I'd check the comments though and Voila!

• by kneemoe at 11:44 AM on 03/06/07

  Reply by Email

  *

  Sounds crazy, but this worked on my 4th G iPod when the HD started clicking after a drop. I'd read some articles about taking it apart, but as i started doing that i skipped to the end of the article... long story short, often the clicking is made by some little arm or spacer thats wiggled loose and is now somewhere it shouldn't be making the disk unreadable and creating the click every time the disk tries to spin
  here comes the crazy - smack your iPod hard against your hand. didn't work? try it again, and again, in differnet directions, different orientations. eventually that little spacer do-hicky will pop out of the spot it was in. i've been using my iPod for well over 6 months since i did this.
  and hey, if it didn't work before, what's the harm in trying this method when all else has failed?

Yup, that's right, just a little spanking. AND IT WORKED!!!

Woohoo!!!

iPod kaput

I meant to post this yesterday.

My iPod is officially non-connectible. I can still charge it on my dock, but it doesn't play well with computers.

Apparently Apple's only solution (I stopped into the Apple Store at Bayshore to confirm yesterday) is restoring.

That means you lose all your music.

Screw that.

I'll wait until prices drop and then just buy a new one AND keep my current tunes.

The whole thing SUCKS though.