Where is John Wilson?

by John Wilson

(This is my 100th post at www.whereisjohnwilson.com)

I haven’t taken as many photos as I’ve wanted to this year, but I did get some good ones at the Coastal Carolina Fair near Charleston, SC this year. This was Parker’s first trip to the fair. He got to pet all kinds of animals, ride his first carnival ride and watch his mother and I eat fried Oreos (very exciting for him I’m sure).

If you go next year, I highly suggest you go during the day. There was a shooting on the last night of the fair, and until they can prevent the hoodlums from ruining it for everyone, I don’t suggest going after dark. We went during both the South Carolina and Clemson Football games, so there weren’t too many people there.

Here are some photos from the Coastal Carolina Fair:

Parker on his first Carousel ride.

Parker and his Momma on the Carousel

Not thrilled with all of the animals making noises.

One MILLION Calories

Leaving the Fair (I guess he didn’t get enough of the Fried Oreos

You can see the other 25 photos here at the whereisjohnwilson.com flickr page.

by John Wilson

Dear South Carolina,

I hope this letter finds you well. Other than the Governor and his soon-to-be ex-wife on the television a bunch, things here in the “Low Country” have been going well. We’re getting our very own Boeing plant, the South East Wildlife Expo this weekend marks the beginning of the tourist season, and the recent oyster festival was one of the biggest yet. Not only those state-wide events, but something in the water caused my wife to get pregnant and now we’re expecting our first child, who will be a native!

I’m writing you today because I need to ask some questions about the pact we made when I moved down here. I promised you I’d pay my ridiculous tax rate, put up with the 107 degree summer days (it’s a wet heat), and learn to eat fish and all you had to do was hold up your end of the bargain.

You see, South Carolina, when all of my friends and family up north ask why I moved down here, I tell them it’s because it never gets below 50 in the winter. They’re buried in snow up to their eyeballs and I’m going for a jog in my shorts. I love to send them pictures of palm trees, and they think it’s funny when I tell them my friends from “down here” put on their heavy coats when the temperature goes below 50.

Now here’s the part I don’t understand. All the great times we’ve spent together, and when I’m not looking, you let it snow. LET IT SNOW?! Not to mention it is 30 degrees. You know no one knows how to drive when it gets like this, and you know that my Facebook page is going to be full of people who haven’t seen snow in ten years building snowmen and I’m going to have to say how cute their kids look… but I have to fake the smile because all I can think about is the fact that YOU LIED! I don’t even know if my house can stand up to this snow, the pipes could be bursting, the shingles could be falling off, my tree is already shedding branches…

South Carolina, do you know that they canceled school yesterday at 1:30pm because it was going to snow at 9pm? That is what I am dealing with down here. In West Virginia they go to school as long as the kids can see over the snow drifts. I swear the super-sized mortgage payment I pay each month has a “no snow” clause. I’m not even sure my hybrid car will turn on. I haven’t “warmed up” a car in five years and I don’t own a shovel, a scraper or a bag of salt.

To say I’m mad at you is an overstatement. Let’s call it “disappointed.” You promised me things that you haven’t been able to deliver on, and I’m not one to forget quickly. I can’t wait til it floods downtown Charleston today.

Cold with wet feet,
John Wilson

P.S. DirecTv doesn’t work in the snow. Lame.

See the rest of the photos at my flickr page here.

by John Wilson

Here are some pictures I took last year on a Caribbean cruise I took with my wife. Our five day cruise stopped for one day at the mega-resort, Atlantis near Nassau. My main reason for posting these pictures displaying these older photos is to test the “Share Slideshow” functionality of my Flickr site.

I got a new camera for Christmas, and I was searching for a way to put travel photos on this blog (so you can see “WhereisJohnWilson”) and Flickr seems to be the best photo sharing website.

There are tons of interesting plugins available for WordPress to post pictures on your blog, but none seem as simple and flexible as clicking “share slide show” on your flickr page. Here are just a few of the pictures I uploaded from our cruise last year:

This is my favorite picture from that set, and one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken:

by John Wilson

There are 100 reasons why the UFC and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) are overtaking or have overtaken the boxing industry. Here is just one of them, and possibly the most important:

The List of Current Boxing Champions
vs.
List of Current UFC Champions

I understand that this is a simplified look at MMA (it doesn’t include Strikeforce, WEC, or any of the other leagues). Even if you did include those, there are less than four (and really only one) major organization. Also, the divisions or companies have completely separate fighters, so there would be no cross pollination, as opposed to most boxing rankings.

For more information about the UFC see: How the UFC Works

by John Wilson

The whereisjohnwilson.com Summer Tour was off this weekend, but I have an interesting and quick tip to pass along.

“You should worry if there are free ear plugs left by the hotel on your pillow.”

A friend of mine is staying (as we speak) in a moderately nice hotel in the north east. When he entered the fancily decorated room he noticed Oreo cookies and ear plugs on his pillow case. I would typically expect to see an Andes mint or even a peppermint.

He probably should have known right then and there to turn around, and walk quietly back to the reception desk. Instead he went to free dinner (it was National Fried Chicken Day).

When he came back he discovered the reason for the “free” ear plugs. There was a bar just out his window blasting horrible country music. Now I’m a Kenny Rodgers fan just like you, but having Hank Williams rock me to sleep on the front end of a five day business trip is not my idea of fun. Between The Dixie Chicks and the crazy cowboy-hat wearin’, mini-van drivin’ drunks breaking bottles in the parking lot, the Oreos are probably not going to make the difference.

Moral of the story: If an otherwise nice hotel leaves you free anything out of the ordinary (earplugs, water-buckets, bug spray) it’s probably a good idea to switch rooms or switch hotels.

Yee Haw!

Come out tonight to the Wind Jammer on Isle of Palms (Charleston, SC) to see the CD release party of The County Line Strangers. This show may be sold out, but you can buy tickets right here online.

The CD entitled, “Heartbreak Motel” has received great reviews so far. It includes 10 songs with future radio hits like Savannah, Let Me Let You Go and Love is the Hardest Thing. The music is probably categorized as a Country-Rock blend (Crock?) – but I’m not much of a music guy.

Songs from the band’s previous albums, Coney Island EP and Phonography will most likely also be on tap.

To get your copy of the CD autographed by the lead singer, Matt Megrue, be sure to contact the band via their MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/countylinestrangers
See you at the show!

What were they thinking with this one?

Seriously?

I saw this sign at a friend of mine’s son’s t-ball game today (Go Red Sox!). The sign sits about chair height right beside the normal metal bleachers typical to community baseball fields.

These bleachers are the ONLY place to sit on the whole field, leaving tons of room for lawn chairs, wheel chairs, or whatever…

I have a few questions:

• Is the view disabled?
• Do you need to have disabled viewing to sit here?
• Is the view disabled because there is a sign right where the game is going on?
• Is the word “disabled” politically correct? Do you thing the viewing area is offended?
• On a normal sized community baseball field, with only enough bleachers for 15 people, is a “disabled viewing section” really necessary?

Photograph by John Wilson

WWTT is my new section called “What Were They Thinking.” I love to ask (typically out loud):

Were there 10 people sitting around a boardroom congratulating each other because they all thought this was a good idea?

First up on this column: Aciphex.

Ass Effects?

I seriously rolled off the couch when this commercial came on for the first time. You’ll run into it on TV (see below), they play it a ton.

I’m not kidding – Aciphex is pronounced – (Ass-e-fects) Ass Effects.

To top it off – it is the most expensive of the acid reflux medicines currently on the market (sourced from http://www.destinationrx.com/)

I get that it is an acid reflux medicine, but SOMEONE at the company had to snicker when whomever came up with this said it out loud for the first time. I can see the VP of Marketing combining a few of the words from their brainstorming session together to spell A-C-I-P-H-E-X. What I can’t see is how someone didn’t blurt out: That’s what she said!

Currently, I bounce around the top of the Google search results. Sometimes one or two, sometimes at the bottom, but since mid last year I’ve always been on page one of the number one search engine in the world when searching for “John Wilson”.

Tonight, a friend of mine saw a commercial for Bing - Microsoft’s new search engine. I was tweaking the new design of my blog and thought I should search “John Wilson” to see where I was. PAGE TWO! This begs the question – how could the number one blog in the world get it right and Bing get it wrong?

Great question. I was playing around with Bing and searched the word “search”. You’d think (at least if I was Product Manager) that Bing would be the number one result. Not so:

Where is Bing? Or Google?

Yahoo? Dogpile (I didn’t even know they still existed)? AOL? Seriously?

I thought this was weird until I ran the same search at Google…

Where is Google, Google?

Where is Product Management? This is either an example of the most pure product management or the silliest thing I’ve seen.

I’m currently having a great time in San Diego. Delta Airlines was nice enough to move me to an isle seat (I was in the middle which is a bad idea for everyone involved) for the 4.5 hour flight. San Diego has an ok airport (more on that later), but it is no where near my favorite one in Seattle which is the coolest airport I’ve never been through (sorry PKB).

On our first night, my boss and I caught the Padres vs. the Phillies. PETCO  Park is a nice, very open stadium, but it has none of that atmosphere you feel at parks like Yankee Stadium, Cincinnati or Cleveland. It may have something to do with the game being on a Tuesday night, or being in the nose bleed section, or the beating they were taking while I was there (final score 10-5). I’m glad I went, take a look:

I was only one block from both the San Diego Convention Center and the Gas Lamp District at the Omni Hotel. The Gas Lamp district seemed to be the downtown, entertainment, eating and bar place. I was never there on the weekend, but Thursday night before we came home seemed to heat up.

Restaurants I visited while in San Diego include:

• Bondi – Austrailian Bar – great atmosphere and excellent calamari,  but hamburger wasn’t that great
• The Spot – La Jolla – bar food – limited selection but cool location and nice scenery
• Croce’s – Contemporary American – live music and large patio for cool spring evening – filet minon

I hope that next time I visit San Diego I have more time to visit attractions that don’t involve convention booths or 10pm dining.