The Walking Dead - Sometimes It Pays To Take Risks

Sunday evenings television viewing in my home used to belong to HBO. Many of my favorite programs have been on the premium cable network. "The Sopranos", "Six Feet Under", "Big Love", "Entourage", and "True Blood" are some of the past and current series that I looked forward to on Sunday nights. The shows provided several water cooler moments that folks were certain to discuss at work and online.


AMC is starting to steal some thunder from HBO. "AMC reigns as the only cable network in history to ever win the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Drama Series three years in a row, as well as the Golden Globe® Award for Best Television Series - Drama for three consecutive years."1 I find it interesting that their successful show "Mad Men" which I also enjoy was passed on by both HBO and Showtime. Sometimes it pays to go against the grain in television and take a gamble.


"The Walking Dead", which AMC debuted on October 31, 2010, tells the story about the months and years that follow a zombie apocalypse. The series debuted with very strong viewership ratings and was lauded by critics. Over 5.3 million viewers watched the first episode, translating into the largest audience AMC has had for any of its original shows. In the adult 18-49 demographic, it was the highest delivery for any cable series premiere in 2010.2 It is written and executive produced by Frank Darabont, the director of "The Shawshank Redemption," and "The Green Mile," and executive produced by Gale Ann Hurd, the producer of "The Terminator," and "Aliens."


What makes "The Walking Dead" such an appealing show to me is that it really is more about survival, raw human emotion, and relationships than it is about zombies. Certainly there is a fair share of gore and blood that one would expect in typical zombie fare, but the show has excelled in its ability to make us care about its characters.


Never before has a show, or film for that matter, made its viewers feel empathy for both living and the undead characters it presents to us. While it invokes frightful depictions of zombies or "walkers" as the show characters call them, we feel sympathy for these horrific looking characters. It makes us think about how we would react if our loved ones were to succumb to a fate that would decrease our chances of survival. The reality of "The Walking Dead" is fetched from the successful comic book series by Robert Kirkman, and there is no chance we would never encounter such events. However, as you watch this series, your mind wanders and you think about realities in our society such as biological warfare, and possible global pandemics. You start to think... "What if that really happened." 


Although the first brief 6 episode season of "The Walking Dead" is coming to a close on December 5th, I am already eagerly anticipating the 13 episode season 2 that is slated to appear next fall. 


Are you a fan of "The Walking Dead?" I'd love to hear your comments about the show!





1 Source: Rainbow Media Holdings, LLC - parent company of AMC
2 Source: www.thefutoncritic.com

Customer Service Is Closed... Literally

Here we are at the busiest shopping time of the year. Many stores are open extended hours to accomodate shoppers, and conveniently, my local Wal-Mart is open 24 hours a day as it always is.

I decided to stop by my local Wal-Mart this evening to pickup the Vizio Blu-Ray Player Model VBR-220 that was priced at $138, a great price for the functionality that it claims to offer. The device has a Blu-Ray DVD player, built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi, Netflix streaming, Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Twitter, and Facebook access. Pretty feature-packed in my opinion.

So it was about 7:30 PM, I purchased the unit, and I headed home for some dinner. After dinner, my family and I put up the Christmas tree and a few other decorations. At about 9:30 PM, I decided to unbox the player, started doing a video review of the unit, and connected it to the HDTV in my bedroom, a 32" Vizio 720p unit that I have had for about 3 years, and have been very happy with.

The new unit would not power on. I consulted the quick-start guide packed in the box. It said to try another outlet that works with another device. Still, when the power button was pressed, the lights on the units flashed, and then went out. Obviously, the unit was defective. This happens from time to time, and I am not upset with Vizio as a manufacturer, as the unit may have been damaged in shipping or by some other cause.

Since I live 5 minutes from my local Wal-Mart, I decided to hop back in the car and exchange the unit for one that worked. The time was about 10:30 PM when I arrived at WalMart. When I entered the store, I looked for the associate that would give me a return tag and send me to customer service. They were not there. Instead, there was a snooty looking gentlemen standing inside the store a bit further who was staring right at me. He did not greet me, nor ask me if he could assist me. Instead, I had to ask him if there was anyone that could give me a return tag.

Under his breath he mumbled something. Unclear of what he said, I walked about 10 feet closer to him and said, "Excuse me, sir?" He then repeated himself, saying "Customer Service closes at 10 pm." He said nothing else. He did not offer an apology for the inconvenience, offered no indication of when customer service would reopen, nothing.

Next, I asked the gentlemen if I could speak to a manager. He looked at me blankly. I repeated myself. He then rolled his eyes and then headed somewhere into the store to find a manager.

A few moments later, a very pleasant woman approached and explained that the customer service department closed at 10pm and would reopen at 7 AM. She mentioned that these were the hours of the Customer Service department in all Wal-Mart 's each day.

I explained to her that I had just purchased the item and it was defective, and that I would like a replacement. She then went on to explain that they none of the regular registers in the store could process an exchange or return, and that only the registers in Customer Service were equipped to do that. She was very pleasant, and did in fact, apologize for my inconvenience.

Needless to say, I was pretty upset. I just spent $138 on something that did not work. The store was still open, and they would not, or could not allow me to exchange the defective unit for one that worked. Granted that it was not an emergency for me. However, there are situations where this could be more problematic for a consumer.

Let's say you are a college student, it is 10:30 PM and you have just purchased a notebook with cash and planned to spend the evening working on an important project for a class. You get back from the store, and your notebook is a dud. You head back to the store to get one that works, and they will not let you return it at that time. You have no more cash to purchase another working laptop. What can you do? You are stuck. Looks like you will miss your project deadline. You can go ahead and sleep, you won't be working tonight.

The scenario may seem far-fetched, but my opinion is, if you are open and will take my money for a product, then you should be required to refund my money for defective products as well at that same as long as the lights are on and you are conducting business.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on your run-ins with "Customer Service" or your findings on how service to customers has dwindled over the years.

The Challenge Of Focus

Since I was a little boy, I have always been characterized as being hyperactive. When younger, my parents were told by the doctor to limit my intake of sugar and that would alleviate the issue. My perception was that it did not help a bit. I believe that they have proven that sugar has little or no effect on the activity levels of kids.

As an adult, I've noticed that they have begun to label just about every human behavior as a medical ailment. A large percentage of the population is on medication for anxiety, myself included. The times when someone was just down for a couple days has waned to us now taking medication to treat every aspect of how we feel both emotionally and physically. I'm trying to think back to when the shoe dropped and we started prescribing medical solutions to the things that folks just used to have to deal with and go on with life.

My continuing challenge has been my inability to stay focused on things. I am very easily distracted. Is this a result of my career choice of technology, where you need to stay up to the minute on every new product and solution that the industry produces. Now we have phones that deliver email instantly, allow us to reach anyone, anywhere, at any time, whether it be via text or voice communications. Many of us are electronically tethered to our jobs, even when on vacation or while attending family events.

A couple of years ago, I started wondering if I had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I also move my leg constantly and have trouble sitting still. They now describe an ailment called Restless Leg Syndrome that is pretty much an exact description of what I experience. So I'm wondering, when I was told to calm down as a kid, and told to stop shaking my leg, were those requests in vain?

I was told by my doctor that to be diagnosed as having ADHD, I would need to visit a psychiatrist for an evaluation. I called several, but I couldn't reach a human being and had to leave a message. None of them returned calls. So I stopped the search for that diagnosis temporarily and will pursue it once again soon. I do not like taking medication for things that I can control. I hate taking Advil or some other pain reliever for headaches and sore joints. Typically, I just deal with it. However, I'm wondering if there is something out there that will help me improve my focus in both my personal life and career.

Do you have experiences with ADHD, Restless Leg Syndrome, Anxiety, or other behaviors that you cannot control without medical intervention? I'm interested in hearing your comments and experiences.

Tis The Season - Black Friday

Black Friday, the day where shoppers are prompted to rush out in their pajamas, sometimes hours prior to store openings to save money on holiday gifts, has been touted as the busiest shopping day of the year. From most of the reports I have read, the busiest shopping day of the year usually falls on the last weekend prior to Christmas Day each year. Whatever the busiest day is, the onslaught of terms like Doorbuster and Unadvertised Specials have been hurled at us relentlessly this week.

There are some great websites out there that aggregate Black Friday deals, such as http://bfads.net/ and http://blackfriday.com/ can save shoppers time by collecting all advertisements and savings in one place. Many retailers started selling a large percentage of their in-store doorbusters online Thursday evening prior to the specials being available in store. When you combine the free shipping offers that many merchants are offering for online purchases, you can realistically do all of your shopping from home, saving gas and eliminating the need to race other shoppers to items in the store.

I've found that if you do some looking, you can actually find many of the doorbuster items for lower prices than many retailers are touting as Black Friday items for less money, sometimes days in advance of Black Friday itself.

Do you have any tips for sharing time and money this time of year? I'd love to hear your tips and thoughts in the comments.

Tech Comes In Handy When Traveling

Each year, my family and I make the trek from the Raleigh/Durham NC area to Syracuse, NY for Thanksgiving. Since I am unwilling to spend ridiculous amounts of money on airfare, and the fact that I don't want the TSA checking out my business, I drive.

For me, any drive longer than about two hours is unpleasant. I'm one of those guys that can't sit still for very long. I need to walk around and keep moving after I've been sitting idle for bit. Traveling with children adds further challenges. Diaper changes, restroom breaks, finicky eaters, cries of "I'm bored," and "When will we be there?"

Tech has helped us at least keep the kids entertained while in the car. Between my daughter using my iPad for drawing, and my son popping imaginary bubbles on my iPhone, they stayed entertained for quite a while. We also listened to portions of an audiobook on my iPhone, which I was able to wirelessly send to my stereo using a Motorola Bluetooth device. An available option, if needed, would have been to watch a streamed Netflix movie on the iPhone.

I remember car trips when I was kid. Since I get dizzy when I try to read in a car, there were only a few ways to occupy my time: drawing, listening to the radio, or sleep. Our children have much more technology available to them. As long as my children are still using their imagination and creativity, I see no problem allowing them to use tech devices sparingly.

I'm pretty easily distracted. This is not a great trait to have while driving, so the quieter the kids are, the better.

Driving without a GPS these days would seem odd to me. Our GPS gives us traffic conditions, so it is able to route us around heavy traffic if it will shorten our travel time. I can't remember the last time I looked at a paper map on a car trip.

What are your experiences with tech on car trips? Do you have any tips to share? I look forward to your feedback!

Losing the Auto-Tune

This past Sunday evening, I watched a bit of the American Music Awards on ABC. For the most part, the awards show was your typical self-congratulatory over-the-top annual event. This year, however, something was different.

I don't know if the sound engineers were all on vacation. Maybe they decided to let all of us know how much of what we consider talent is all the creation of studio technology. Whatever the reason, almost all of the performers sounded absolutely horrible. Perhaps the show was trying to lend credibility to artists by not having them lip sync. I'm certain some portions of the vocal performances were pre-recorded, but the parts that were live we off key and caused me to cringe.

From the performances I saw: Bon Jovi, Pink, Justin Bieber, and Ke$ha, the vocals were horrible. I realize that performing live is difficult, and I also understand that singing while dancing at the same time is difficult for the performers that do that. 

Even more mind-boggling is how they attempt to create the illusion that performers are actually playing instruments when they clearly are not. When Justin Bieber was "playing piano" during his Sunday evening performance, the piano portion of the song continued to play after he stood up from the piano. It must be magic! 

We shell out millions each year to hear these folks sing. I hope they are paying the producers and studio engineers well, because they obviously deserve it! 

Check out Justin Bieber's magical piano below. At about 1:04 in the clip, you'll see the piano play all on its own, as well as witness the effects of puberty on the male voice. 

Please weigh in with any thoughts you may have. 

Rapid Review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1

I haven't read the Harry Potter books, but have seen all of the films, including the most recent release "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1."

In this cinchcast, I offer a very brief one sentence review of the film. I'd love to hear your feedback!

Using the Target iPhone app to save time and money on holiday purchases

Time is pretty tight this time of year with the holidays approaching fast. In the following cinchcast, I discuss how the Target iPhone app has helped me save some time and money.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the app or the cinchcast!

How has technology changed your Holiday gift giving and or travel planning process?

Time and money are usually tight as we approach holiday time each year. In this cinchcast, I ask how technology has influenced your holiday gift-giving and travel planning and efficiency. I'd love to hear your feedback!

I propose the question: How valuable is a college education in seeking a technology career? - My first Cinchcast

Many times you'll see that a college education is required for job openings. In this cinchcast, I propose the question: How valuable is a college education in seeking a technology career?

I'd love to hear your feedback!