RIP MJ! We Are The World Thinking of You Today

What is more to say than this song? Michael was one of a kind. Disagree with his choices along the allegations late in his life but nobody can dispute the pop icon that he was. It is too hard to pick a single song so I thought We Are The World would be the perfect alternate. I only wish I was able to see him live just once.

Slip Sliding Away

I do not think I am any kind of Nostradomus but I would like to be the first to go on record to say that Ultimate Electronics is about to start with the "Everything must go" signs. They are running unprecedented radio ads and have kids standing near their stores with signs saying "We shop Best Buy and Wal-Mart every day!".

For those of you that are not familiar with this store, it is Minnesota based and was formerly known as Audio King. If I want something high-end, it would be the first place I'd look to see and compare but I'd still most likely buy on the internet. I personally would have never changed the name from Audio King as "sound" was and still is their forte.

I used to shop Audio King and have shopped Ultimate Electronics from time to time. Why are they tanking (in my opinion)?

1. They tend to lean to high end. This economy does not support that.
2. On most occasions when I have been there, their sales staff has been very stuck up / cocky towards me. They very much have a "too good for you" attitude.
3. They are trying to compete with Best Buy and Wal-Mart. People go to those stores for something small all the time...ink, CDs, games, memory cards, etc. That gets you in the store where you see the big ticket items. When it comes time to buy those, you find yourself back to the big stores, not deciding to look and see what UE has.
4. Back on December 26, I mentioned their lack of brands in mp3 players. I see now that they have 35 (cr)apple models and 7 others. At least they are expanding a little. Still, I think they are painted into a very small corner and that is hurting them.
5. They are trying to win by mentioning the competition....FAIL!

Bottom line is that I hope they succeed since they are Minnesota based and are really the only place to get higher end sound gear. Like #5 says, they are to the point of pointing out how they are better than the competition. That is one step above bad mouthing the competition. What UE needs is to find the place where they are different than the competition.

Like in any business, 99% of what competetors do is the same. Live with it. To succeed you need to find the 1% that sets you apart from your competetors and you NEVER bring them into the conversation. If you do that 1% well, people notice and you don't need to worry about the competition. They need to worry about you!

WWW Plus Two

I really did not think the day would come. My Dad is not nor has no intentions to change the way he is. I do not have any issues with that. Stay true to who you are.

When my sisters and I found out he wanted a computer for his birthday, I was shocked. We snapped up a nice Dell laptop. I got it all setup with links, accounts, etc.

If you have seen the movie Men In Black, Will Smith "J" goes through a process where his entire identity is deleted all the way to his fingerprints. Every reference to him in society was deleted.

As I created email accounts, facebook accounts (yes, even my dad is on FB, Al).....I realized I was creating his online existence. Nothing about him was there before I created it. I was like Christophe in "The Truman Show". Godlike. "And on the 15th business trip to Carmel, IN, Mr. Orr's online existence was created!" OK, now I am just full of shit as usual.

Finally, an air-card service was found that has good signal in the sticks of Aitkin County. Just like that, they are online.

The challenge is talking them through the where's and what's to see and click on.

ME: Don't you see "login" at the top of the page?
THEM: Where?
ME: At the top of the page.
THEM: No.
ME: Well tell me what you see.
THEM: I see a blue bar with "http".
ME: Oh - not that far up......

You get the drift.

Still, this is a great thing in my opinion. It is not that I don't enjoy the calls from my dad to "look something up on my computer"....as if MY computer had all the world's information stored in it. I still want those calls. I just look forward to him seeing more of what is happening day to day. Sharing email. Jokes. Stuff like that.

Thanks dad for taking the step. Even if Sharon becomes your Information Secretary, I think eventually, you'll get it.

Know When To Retire....

I am not a huge fan of the NWA - Delta merger. Everyday, more NWA planes are sitting at the gate in Delta Livery. My first trip on an A330-300 was in Delta colors. I just hope I get a chance to ride one still painted in NWA colors.

I don't mind travel for work and certainly love it for play. I have developed a list of favorite airplanes for various reasons mostly related to space and size since I am not quite "waif".

I loved the A330, like 757s in first class but in coach they are a bit cramped like any Boeing plane. I get along very well with the A319/320's.

At one time, NWA Airlink had some RJ-85s which had 4 engines on a regional jet for short runways but were gas hogs. They were great because their coach seats were bigger than most first class seats on other planes. For airlink, I am currently a fan of the Embraer 175s. Nice plane.

YES - I AM GETTING TO THE POINT!!!!

When Delta bought NWA, I expected it to be the end of the old smokers also known as DC-9's. These planes originated with Republic Airlines which was purchased by NWA.

I DESPISE these planes. Small, cramped, immovable armrests and they are LOUD inside. These planes mostly originated in the 60's and are still in service so we'll give them a point for reliability.

I am now seeing these painted in Delta colors. Why? They are gas hogs! They burn in 500 miles what an Airbus or Embraer burns in 1000.

Well, I guess we get the last laugh. I saw one tonight at Indianapolis at a gate. The nice, pretty new Delta paint looked like someone lit a bonfire under the plane behind the engines. The old NWA colors hid the exhaust markings but not the nice, pretty white that Delta has back there.

They should have just left them red and silver until they retire them which should have been yesterday!