I had a conversation earlier this week and it seems like the spirit of Christmas is dying.

Every year I try to get my son (who is 6) to sit down and watch the classic Christmas shows with me.  I get so excited when I see Rudolph showing up on TV and can’t wait to sit there and watch it.  When I try to get my son to sit there with me he gets bored within minutes and wants to flip the channel to Spongebob or some other Nickelodeon show.

And I have to blame the networks, on some level, for this. 

Years ago, when I was growing up there was only three major networks.  If you wanted to watch any shows you were stuck between those networks and didn’t have much else on.  The Christmas shows only appeared on these channels.  And all the shows were made in the ’60’s.  The early ’80’s we didn’t have any new holiday shows to choose from.

Now fast forward to today.  There are dozens on channels out there that creates there own programming.  I have nothing against this, but the problem is that we have over saturation.  ABC Family does the 25 days of Christmas and shows a huge amount of Christmas related shows.  The quality of all these shows aren’t the best, but they do have to fill up a lot of air time with holiday shows.  ABC Family also likes to make their own movies too.  I don’t really want to see some weak storylined movie with some C-list actor in it.  Kids have too much Christmas stuff to choose from and pay less attention to what we grew up with.

The second reason kids don’t like the classics is because of technology.

Nowadays, kids have all these computer generated movies, HD television, and video games.  They have too much technology out there.

Who wants to sit there for 30 minutes and watch some hand created standard definition movie that doesn’t have explosions, silly voices, or where the story ends before the commercial break. 

The third reason is availability.

Growing up, we didn’t have VCRs and if you missed a show on TV – you missed it!  Now you can buy all the Christmas shows on DVD and watch them anytime you want.  This takes away from the anticipation of waiting for that one night a year that your favorite holiday show is on.

If my son doesn’t get to appreciate these shows, what will happen to them in the future?  Will the major networks eventually stop showing them and they will only become a memory to those who grew up with them?

Unbeknownst to me, a  third podcast fell into my lap yesterday.  A friend of mine from Tampa was IMing me yesterday and we were doing the usual chit chat and she said “This is stuff that you hear on the radio”.  So I asked said, “Let’s do a podcast.  All you need is a headset.”  Her response was, “How much?”

I figured that maybe she would lose interest in it today, but when we got back online together she was still chatting away about it.

So, it looks like another podcast is in the works for lil old me.  The funny thing is this type of podcast was one of the ones I planned on working on next.  So maybe this is fate.

I did explain to her that it’s not just getting online and talking.  There is some prep work that needs to be done on her side, and that my side is even harder – prepping, website, editing, uploading!  She was too excited (like I was with my first show) doing a daily show, web cam,  phone calls, etc. etc.  I told her that we have to go baby steps, but I know where she wants to take it, and I hope that one day we’ll get it to that point.

So, here’s where we stand with this podcast.

Right now, we are in the early stages, but when more information is available I’ll let you know.

I can’t wait!

She found the place on one of Yahoo!’s map related websites that gives you information about places around you.  The reviews of it were very high, so what could go wrong?

It was about 12:30 and we headed out the back door of the building.  The address was on the street behind us and the number was 104.  Since our building was 100, we had to be nearly on top of it.  Now, if you’ve ever been to downtown Tampa there will be something obvious about all the buildings – THEY DON’T LIKE TO PUT NUMBERS ON THEM!  Okay, that wasn’t a problem.  We headed up one way and found lots of little businesses – copy places, museum, banks, etc. etc. but no restaurant.  We jumped across the street, figuring it was there and headed back towards the building – still nothing.  Made me wonder where the heck this place was.  We must’ve passed it somewhere.  So, we crossed the street again and began our second lap.  There wasn’t any restaurant in the area.  I suggested that she get her phone out and call them to ask where they were.  There were two problems with this.  First off, she didn’t have the number, but we could call information for it.  Secondly, she didn’t have the phone, so the first problem didn’t even matter.  There was a hotel there, so, if anyone would know, they would inside.  She asked them where it was and they had no idea.  Now I wanted to know where the hell this place was!  So, we did what any normal person would do – we began our third lap around the street!

Now, we were looking for this restaurant…. in Florida…. in the summer, where the temps are in the 80s and the humidity was in the 90s, and we were wearing dress shoes.  So, the comfort level was non existant and the deordorant was starting to wear thin. 

About half way through this lap we decided to head back to work and call them up to see where they are.  I was almost certain that we walked by the place and didn’t even notice it.  By this time, my stomach was making some strange noises that the only thing I could think about was lunch!  NOW WHERE THE F*** IS THIS DAMN PLACE?  THEY BETTER HAS SOME GREAT FOOD THERE!

We got back in the office – nearly an hour after we left for lunch, with moisture in places I dare not discuss.  My friend has to log back into her computer and try to find the website to get the number.  Great, let’s add more time until we get to eat!  She pulled up the page, grabbed the phone and dialed the number.

“The number you have dialed has been disconnected.  If you need assistance please dial the operator.”

WHAT?  You have to be kidding me, we were looking for a place the doesn’t exist!!!

So, now the big question is where should we go to eat?  We were both disgusted with the outcome of the first choice so we decided to walk around downtown and see if anything catches out fancy.  We wanted something different and not go to any of the “old standbys.”  After another 10 minutes of walking nothing jumped out to us then I remembered a place called “The Office” that sound some great hamburgers.  She thought it was a great idea so we headed over there.  There was only one problem with this suggestion – they had gone out of business. 

Looks like we were even – she picked a non-existant place and I picked one that was out of business.

So we headed back to work and kept our eye out for something interesting.  Heck, by this time, we would have been happy with a day-old donut from Krispy Kreme.  So, as we got close to our building we decided to go to the one place we didn’t want to go to in the first place – the hotel restaurant located RIGHT ACROSS FROM THE BUILDING!

So, we spent over AN HOUR of walking aimlessly through downtown Tampa just to go to a place that’s less than 2 minutes from our building!

Since work was paying for this – when we sat down and started looking at our menus I said, “I’m having dessert dammit! Not wasting that much time to go and eat lunch and not having desert!”

So after over an hour of trying to get to lunch, a $30+ bill, and some medicocre food – I was content.

The lesson of this story was that she was not allowed to pick a place to go to eat at!

I don’t know when I realized that the Jews celebrate a different holiday, but when you’re that age you don’t understand why not everyone celebrates Christmas.  You figure “If I do it then everyone else must too.”

Then, I thought to myself: “How long will it be before one of them pops?”  Within a few minutes a loud BANG was heard throughout the hall.

So, I sat down and tried to figure out how to determine how long it takes before one of the balloons pops.

Here’s my formula:

minutes til pop = (number of kids total – number of kids with balloons) x square footage of area they are playing in

 
Looking at this formula: the more kids in the group with balloons and the smaller the area they are playing it the higher chance of one of the balloons popping.

Of course, this hasn’t been verified with scientific study, but any observed eye can attest to this theory.

What this feature allows (If enabled) is if a person is sending an email between two specified times it will force the user to answer 5 math questions within a certain time limit.  Essentially, this is a way to prevent people from “drunk emailing.”

Personally, I think that it’s just a gimmick by Google to convince people to switch over to their service.

Saturday night, I tested out this service.  I attempted to send a “drunk email” to one of my lovers – Drew Barrymore.  (“Why won’t you talk to me, Drew?”)  The only setting that this feature has is a math setting.  Unfortunately, I’m very proficient in math so I set it to the hardest setting.

I set up an email and hit the send button.  A window popped up with 5 math questions and a 45 second clock.  I answered the “hard” questions with plenty of time to spare.  My email went on it’s way.

If Google wants this service to work better they need to change a few things:

1. Don’t just have addition and subtraction questions
Even on the hardest setting they have all the questions where addition and subtraction.  They were double digit math questions, but still too easy.  Throw in some multiplication and division in there.  That would help make it more difficult for people.
2. Do more than math
Some people are naturally good enough at math.  (Me – case in point)  Give the users other options.  How about some spelling questions?  Maybe some analogies?  Something SAT related could work.  The easiest way to get around the math questions is by using Google to give you the answers.  Step it up a notch.
3. Time delay the mailing
When people are angry or drunk they do stupid things and then regret LATER!  Google could put an option in to the email settings where if there is an email sent at a certain time you put it in holding box and when the person logs in later on a window pops up asking them if they’re sure they want to send the specific email.  It’s a little more of a “mature” way to approach this.

In the end, this is just one of the features that Google put out there so people can talk about it, but not actually use it.

After resurrecting my podcast, The Average Joe Show, from the dead, I felt invigorated to do more with my online presence.  (Author’s sidenote: my next podcast is planned to be a Doctor Who show.  Head over to www.podcastartup.com for more details.)

On and off for the last several months I was wondering what I should put on this website.  Should it be a tech blog?  Personal blog? Something else?  I was stumped.  Even though I enjoy tech I didn’t think that I could sit here and write only about tech.  There are many websites out there that are dedicated to that and I didn’t want to be basically taking their information and rearranging it on my site.  Also thought of doing a personal blog, but what could I do with that?  My life isn’t that exciting to have something interesting to write about.  So, that was out of the question.

Then it hit me this week – how about a website that crawls into my mind?  I know that’s scary.  But, I could put anything on here imaginable.  I could have short stories, random thoughts, things I did at work/home, whatever turns my fancy.  So that’s what CoreyCharette.com is going to be about.  It’s going to be a look into my mind – what’s going on inside my head at the moment I post it in here.

I figured that I would put desciptions in the subject lines as to what to expect from the posting.  Below is a short list:

THOUGHT – just something that came to me and wanted to get it out.  Maybe just a question on something about life.
RANT – me complaining about something going on.
???? – I’ll come to that when I post it.

So, with that note, my friends, I hope that you will enjoy this website for a long time to come.  Of course, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them on the website for me.

Thanks,
Corey