The SoapBoxers

Our  hero Joe checks in again.

This was our most physically taxing day yet.  We got up early to catch a charter bus at the airport.  It took a lot longer to get out of the city than we had hoped for.  The bus had to stop downtown as well, and people were walking up to the bus to try to buy tickets.  We bought our tickets for hundreds of dollars last summer, and they were allowing people to walk up and buy tickets for the same price, delaying our departure.  Luckily, our hotel was first on the list of drop-offs.

Because the alpine events were going on behind our hotel at Whistler, the area was limited entry and we had to catch a van from a spot lower in town.  Arriving at the hotel, our room wasn’t ready, so we had to leave our bags.  We are doing a heliskiing trip tomorrow, so we had to take our ski boots and check in for it a day early at the bottom of the main hill.

From our hotel, we caught a shuttle bus to the main base of Whistler.  There we checked in for our helicopter trip and then waited in line for the gondola to the Whistler Sliding Centre.  Approaching the village, the line looked extremely long.  It stretched all the way through a queue and into the shops and restaurants at the base.  Despite the length, it only took about 30 minutes to get on.

After arriving at the top, we were greeted with another long line, this time snaking through the snow at the bottom of a ski run.  I was glad I brought my water-proof hiking boots.  We went through security after standing in the snow for 40 minutes, now becoming pros by putting all our metal in our jackets and sending those through on the x-ray belts.  We were immediately greeted by the electric crowd and rumbling of the sleds pounding down the track.  We first ventured into the last turns, dubbed Thunderbird by the Canadians and “50/50” by the Americans because “it’s 50% you crash, 50% you don’t.”  After taking a few shots, we realized just how fast they go.  RIDICULOUSLY FAST!  I mean, you blink, you miss it, even on a big turn like that.  You have less than a second to get a good shot of the racers.

We then headed up the track toward the top.  It took us all of the 3rd Heat (first of the day) to get to the top.  We took pics all along the way, and stopped and watched quite a bit.  We snapped pics where the Georgian luger was killed (at the very bottom) and the different starting points for luge and women’s events along the way.  There was even a camera in the ice to get the sleds as the go over.  After getting to the top, there was another queue for the grand stands at the starting line.  We decided it would be good to get a seat there to watch the start in person and the rest of the race on the big screen.  It took about 40 minutes to get through that line, but got to watch the race while waiting for the last 10 minutes.  There was a 45 minute break between heats.

It was so exciting to cheer on both USA teams, and even more so to see the good guys win the gold.  A very energetic crowd, all the way down the track.  We then headed back down the track, which took 20 minutes, waited in line in the snow for the gondola, which took 25 minutes, and then did some shopping to avoid the other line to get on the bus.  Olympic items were already on sale here in Whistler, so we got some good deals on official merchandise.

A stop to get beer and a short bus ride back to the hotel to get into our room concluded the day on the mountain.  We walked across the street from the lodge and grabbed some darn good BBQ at Bob’s.  They were already taking down fencing and banners around the mountain, and most of the crowd we battled were no where to be found.  A nice relaxing day.

We have now concluded the Olympic portion of our trip, and are going to check out the skiing for the next three days.  I am so excited since it’s been snowing for almost a week.  Should be EPIC!

Joe continues to bring us coverage from Vancouver.

Today was Canada’s day.  I went deeper into the sea of red found out how much these people truly love their country.

I was able to sleep in a little today, not having any events in the morning.  Since we are close to the Richmond Oval, we walked down a block to check it out.  We were surprised to find a chrome statue of Stalin’s head nearby.  The building was beautiful, having wood joists and paneling with traditional glass, steel, and siding.  From there it was a long walk to the train station to make it down to town.  We decided to get off at the Olympic Village and snap a few photos of where the athletes live.  It wasn’t much, just a few apartment buildings with flags hanging out the windows based on which country was staying there.  We then walked over one of the main bridges to the city center.

The package of tickets I bought included a hospitality center pass, so we spent the afternoon watching the USA vs. Finland hockey game while getting tipsy and fed for free.  The Sheraton hosted it, and there were spectacular dishes.  King crab legs, leg of lamb, sea bass kabobs, crème brule, and so much more.

After the good guys shellacked the Fins, we decided to get out before the Canadian curling and hockey crowd showed up.  From there we walked to the Olympic Cauldron to take some pictures.  We bought some pins along the way from a few of the many vendors on the street.  As the day went on, the crowds increased, it seemed, exponentially.  We quickly got on the train to the east part of the city where the Pacific Coliseum was hosting the short track speed skating finals.  We got there early and had no real problem getting in.

Once inside, I realized how small it was.  It probably held 9,000 guests when bulging, and it was not this evening.  Despite it being a final and lots of the home country skating, there were a few open seats.  It was a disappointing night for the USA, as Apolo was DQed in the 500m and had to come from behind to get the bronze in the 5000m relay.  Katherine Reutter did well in winning the silver in the 1000m and was ecstatic with her result.

The building was quite electric though, probably one of the most energetic crowds I have ever been a part of.  The Canadians took the gold and bronze in 500m and the gold in 5000m, sending the crowd into a frenzy.  It was very interesting watching the event in person, because you got to see a lot of things you don’t on TV.

There was a camera man in the middle of the ice for all the regular races, but not the relay.  The judges in suits wear track skates as well.  The gun they use is actually a red toy gun with a cord connected to it, like something you’d plug into your Wii.  The track is always the same length, but they can move the cones toward or away from the center based on how the judges think the ice condition is.  There are cone attendants, much like ball boys in tennis, who set each cone when knocked off or when the judges say.  They also go out with a bucket of water and pour it on liberally along the inside of the two corners.  There is often standing water along the cones during the race.

So much stuff you don’t pick up on when watching on TV.  Also, all during the event there is an announcer for not only the event you’re watching, but keeps you informed of other events going on, even putting it live on the jumbotron during breaks.  Very cool, considering the Canada vs. Slovakia game was on.

Leaving the venue we ran into our first travel delay.  Getting back to the train meant getting on a shuttle bus, and the line was about 20 min long.  We opted to take a regular bus route back to downtown.  I should mention that during the games, any event ticket holder can use any form of public transportation for free.  It took quite a while to get back, and when we got there, we found the place to be flooded with leaf-wearing loonies.

The hockey game had ended about 30 minutes before we got there, and people were already literally drunk with happiness that they’d be playing the USA on Sunday for a gold medal.  We got lots of dirty looks and “Go Canada!” chants in our face due to our American hockey jerseys and hats.  We decided to let them have it, since we are currently owning their podiums.  We ventured over to a Thai restaurant, and were promptly seated.  However, the service was incredibly slow due to just 2 or 3 servers.  We ended up spending over an hour there for just dinner.  We hurried over to the rail station, only to find another 20 minute line waiting to board.  We were able to return home, a little soaked by the day’s constant drizzle.

I picked up some interesting tidbits today.  Sochi, the next Winter Games host city, has their own building (“house”) and you can go inside and watch events and meet athletes.  It looks like Epcot Center from the outside.  They are expecting over 150,000 people to be downtown during the USA-Canada game on Sunday, not including the crowd attending.  This is a VERY conservative estimate.  There are over 39,000 people booked on flights leaving on Monday, and they expect the departure process to take about 4 hours for most people.  I also learned that Canada fans are very annoying when it comes to hockey.  However, unlike most fans, they are very emphatic only about their country, and still wish the best to whomever they’re playing next.

A truly spectacular day was had, and tomorrow I will be making the trip to Whistler to take on the Bobsleigh final.  Until then, Go USA!

Guest reporter Joe Neumann continues his adventures in Vancouver.

Vancouver Olympics – Day 1:
Wow, what a day.  I woke up in the Mile High City with the weather on the verge of snow, and ended the day in comfortable Vancouver after a very full day.  Upon arriving, I could tell this city was ready for a big party.  The airport had lots and lots of room for arrivals and customs checks.  Getting into the country was fairly simple.  I just filled out a declaration in Seattle before boarding our plane, and gave it to the agent at customs before getting my bag.  They had about 30 agents ready for us, and maybe 5 had visitors at them.  No wait at all.  The airport had been recently renovated, and was very ample for all arriving and departing passengers today.  I’d imagine it will be a zoo on Saturday and Sunday, though.

We checked into our rented apartment, and it is much better than anticipated.  Very close to the light rail, restaurants, the Richmond Oval, and the airport.  Very secure building and accessible owner.  We walked to the market and grabbed a Cranberry Turkey sandwich, which was pretty good and only C$4.  We got situated and headed downtown to pick up our tickets.  I was worried it would be very tough to find the ticket will call, and in fact it was pretty easy with knowing the vicinity of where it was supposed to be.  There were visitor booths all along the light rail and downtown area to help.  In addition, lots of tents and vendors were along all streets downtown, and two main streets were closed off, which made it easy to walk around.

Another thing I was initially concerned with was the security and general hospitality of the people in the city.  They were more than warming, welcoming “With Glowing Hearts” everywhere we went.  They were willing to help point us in the right direction, make small talk, and make us feel welcome.  Cops and security were plentiful on each street and venue, even in restaurants and shops.

After picking up our tickets, we checked out the city center around Robson street, which is fanfare central.  Not only were there lots of street performers and booths, but the city had entertainment venues set up around town.  They had hourly free shows at two stages, a zipline across the city center, and TV monitors all over the place showing live events.  Every spectator with a maple leaf on their shirt or sweater had their eyes glued to them during the Canada-USA Womens’ Hockey Final.

We migrated to the BC Place for our “Victory Ceremony” after wandering the city four a couple hours.  We were told to get there early, as it would take a while to get in.  There were over 20 security tents to handle the burden.  They did a full screen on each visitor just as if boarding a flight.  It didn’t take long since we were almost an hour early, and were able to make it to our seats about 30 minutes ahead of time.  Man, what a building!  This is the same venue where the opening ceremonies took place, and they only used 1/3 of it for the ceremony.

They had videos playing while people found their seats, then two emcees played trivia with the crowd.  They had a few live bands from Manitoba (it was Manitoba Celebration Night) perform before the official festivities.  Then the real production started.  There was a simulcast with the Victory Ceremony in Whistler.  They showed a presentation at Whistler, followed by one at our venue in Vancouver.  It was very exciting to have the American National Anthem played first, as we had a gold and silver medalist in Nordic Combined.  The final presentation was for Womens’ Two-man Bobsleigh, and of course the building went crazy because Canada won gold and silver in that event.

After all medals were presented, a total of 5 presentations, they had a full-fledged concert by yet another musician from Manitoba, former member of the Guess Who, Burton Cummings.  It was just like a regular rock concert, with fancy lasers and light choreography.  He played some good songs, but most were unheard of by my father and I.  We left a little early, and grabbed dinner at a local sports bar.  The food was more than decent for the price, around C$12-30 for most dishes.  Beer on tap was cold and local.  It was a nice refresher.

The day wasn’t without some interesting tidbits though.  I sort of got the vibe before arriving, but at the moment, Canada doesn’t like hearing USA cheers.  We are slaughtering them in the medal count after they spent lots of money on a program called “Own the Podium.”  Walking by some people, you could hear “so glad we kept Americans off the podium in Womens Figure Skating” and people chanting “USA sucks” during the Womens’ Hockey Final.  Talking with a local, he said it is interesting that Canadians often complained that USA was loud and boisterous in winning, and now Canada is doing it since the games are on their turf.  He went on to mention that it seems forced and they aren’t very good at the role.

We also searched all over for USA Olympic Gear, and the only thing we found was Ralph Lauren Polo gear at a department store that was way over priced.  We also waited 30 minutes to get in the store because it is the official Olympic store.  If you were a Canadian at these games, you would have plenty of cool designs to chose from to represent your country.  If not, you better hope you brought something from home.

My first impression of the city and games was very, very good.  This town seems incredibly prepared, and there weren’t any hang ups getting from airport to event, or anything imbetween.  I am so ready for bed now.  I can’t wait to enjoy our hospitality center pass tomorrow and see Apolo Ohno’s performance in Short Track!

The Soap Boxers was able to send beat reporter Joe Neumann to Vancouver to cover the Olympics. Well, either that, or we found out that Joe was headed to Vancouver and asked if we could hitch our wagon to his trip.  We are happy to announce that Joe will be sending us several installments of his Olympic journal to share with our readers.

Joe is an engineer in his mid 20s who works at a remote mine in Northwest Alaska and spends time off in Denver, CO. He was born and raised in Denver, migrated to Rolla, Missouri for four years of school and spent time in rural Arkansas and Salt Lake City doing summer work. He enjoys skiing, golfing, bowling, and traveling/road trips. You can follow Joe on Twitter.

Without further ado, I turn to floor over to Joe.

Vancouver Olympics – Day 0
Today I spent preparing for my trip to see the 21st Winter Olympiad. This is my first trip to Canada, and my first time out of the country since before 2001. I fly quite frequently (about every other week), so I am curious to see how much longer the process will be going out and coming back into our country. This is also my first Olympic Games, and although I’ve been to some other big sporting events (MLB All-Star Game, World Series, College World Series), I am very excited to be in that new atmosphere.

Preparation for these games has been a lot harder than I expected. For one, all tickets are attached to a name and require photo ID for pick-up, and their email claims holders are subject to a photo ID check at the games. I guess this is to restrict scalping, but it makes it tough for travelers like me. They don’t assign seats until pick-up, and although I’m in the “A” group seating for both my events and the medal ceremony, I am a little worried they will not be as close as we would like.

Finding a place to stay was a chore in itself. When I first decided I wanted to go, I read lots of advice on the Olympic websites, and it all said the toughest thing to get was tickets to events, so make sure to get those first. Then get lodging, airfare, and other accommodations. I followed their advice and bought tickets as soon as possible in Feb 2009.

Then I started looking for lodging, and found most places wouldn’t take reservations until 9 months before the games (June 2009). The reason is because they allow the IOC and officials to make reservations in the time leading up to June. Of course, when I called in June, everything was completely booked in Vancouver. Whistler was a different story. Not only were there lots of rooms available, they weren’t that expensive. So I went another route and found a condo in Richmond, close to the Vancouver airport, that was being rented by the owner for the entire games. At a reasonable $550 a night (!), I decide it would be best to limit the time we are in Vancouver.

I found a place in Whistler for about $300 a night during the games and $250 after that. Considering I love to ski and have never skied outside my home state of Colorado, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I decided to stay an extra 3 nights and do some skiing. And I should mention that this isn’t just any lodge in the vicinity, it is a 4 star ski-in/ski-out resort at the bottom of the Alpine course (Creekside). That just shows you how expensive things are in Vancouver.

Some might be thinking, why would you chose to go to these games? Well, I sort of have a business connection. I work for Teck Resources, which some of you might recognize because we are the company that is supplying the metals for all the medals in these games and the Paralympics. Not only are we providing the medals, but we held the contest for the design, so you can blame us for the big metal potato chips. We have also been under some scrutiny because it is the first time a portion of the medals has come from recycled scrap metals, specifically those from electronics. While I am proud of that fact, some “traditionalists” think they should be specially mined from ore deposits just for Olympic medals.

Our company has done a great job of using their status as “Official Supplier” to generate lots of interest in its workforce. We first learned of the agreement in 2007, and immediately Teck announced that we would be able to nominate co-workers in different areas of excellence to win trips to both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Vancouver Games. In addition, they’ve held raffle-style contests to win trips to both games, and even be a torch bearer.

The mine I work at in Alaska produces mostly zinc, about 20% lead, and less than 1% silver. A portion of that silver went into the gold (because gold metals are 98% silver with a pure gold coating) and silver medals. We produce way more than is needed for the medals, so it was no big deal for us. I should say, we don’t have any operating tin mines, so that metal was purchased on the open market and blended with copper from another one of our mines to make the bronze. Overall, I am very proud to be associated with these games, and be an employee of Teck.

So as I write this, my father and I are about 14 hours from landing in Vancouver. I will have another entry about my first impression of the city, how busy it is, how easy to find food, and how entertaining a medal ceremony really is tomorrow. Have a good evening, and go USA!

A week ago today an act of domestic terrorism occurred in Austin, Texas, when Joseph Stack flew a plane into an office complex housing an IRS field office. That’s right I called it a terrorist act, which is what it is. Maybe those of you on the right feel that no it can’t be terrorism. After all he’s not muslim or doesn’t have a funny sounding name, or that he’s one of us. Call it whatever you want and live in your own reality, but the fact of the matter is that it was a terrorist act.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines terrorism as “the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.”

A dictionary definition not good enough for you? How about the legal interpretation of it under United States law – “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets.”

The argument here from the right would be that it isn’t terrorism, he was just someone disgruntled with the IRS, don’t we all hate the IRS? However the truth of the matter Stack’s actions were well premeditated and against a non-combatant target with the express intention to coerce people and government to change their action through his own political and ideological reasons. Sounds like terrorism to me. We have a winner.

Where’s the premeditation and ideology you ask? Well its quite clear in is manifesto of a suicide note he decided to post on his business website. Looking into the source code it became clear that the note had been originally written two days prior to the incident and revised a whopping 27 times before its final draft status to be posted that day before he decided to stick it to the man. The little piece has the usual ramblings of the right wing loon, government bailouts, tax laws, the Catholic church, big government, 9/11as the reasons things come to this. However also in the ramblings is a call for violent revolt hoping that his actions that day will cause other people to take such action against the government as well.

Sounds like premeditation and clear coercion based on political idealism to me.

It’s nothing new that we don’t like to call a spade a spade in these circumstances when a white man in America does an act of terrorism, heck Newt Gingrich and others sympathised with Timothy McVeigh.

Looks like history repeats itself as just earlier this week Iowa Congressman Steve King decided to come out and score points with the fringe nutjobs by sympathizing with Mr. Stack and his views and his actions and declaring they were justified because it will be a “happy day in America” when the IRS is gone. He also noted that Stack would not have had a target if we just would have abolished the IRS when he stated they should and Stack’s actions were noble. Granted the Congressman later came out with the usual my words have been taken out of context defense, but they were not as there is video evidence of it. Thanks for playing Congressman. The noble action I think should come out of this is for the voters of Iowa to vote his pandering arse out of office in November.

Anyways it is clear to me that someone spouting “violence is the only answer” and calling for others to do the same is just as much of an incitation to terror as Alalhu Akbar. Call it what it was TERRORISM.

And now for the bad nuts of the past month, other than Rep. King in no particular order…

Bad Nut No. 1: Former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo

In his opening address to the Tea Party Convention he stated amongst many other idiotic and appalling things, that if we would have still had literacy test like they used to in the south then we would not have to had to deal with a President Obama, because if it was not for non white people he would not have been elected. For one thing Mr. Tancredo I would love to have an actual civics literacy test as a requirement when one registers to vote, because 99.9% of the teabaggers would fail. However the literacy tests you speak of wanting to return had nothing to deal with literacy of government and more of something like how many bubbles are in a bar of soap? And white people didn’t have to take the test.

Bad Nut No. 2: Lauren Ashley, Miss Beverly Hills in the 2010 Miss California Pageant

Move over Carrie Prejean. There is a new new flavor of the week in nutcase beauty queens seeking their fifteen minutes now that yours is well up. In a statement on same sex marriage Ashley stated that homosexuality is wrong because God says so and those who do will be put to death and then went on to quote a passage from Leviticus. “If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.” I guess God is all for boob jobs and swimsuits though? Ah the religious right, so picky and choosy with the biblical references that count.

Bad Nut No. 3: Politicians and People who joked, statused, tweeted, etc about the recent snowfalls in DC.

Not really a surprising thing, but it seemed to be the favorite thing of everyone on the right to do lately. Stuff like “Where in the World is Al Gore when global warming is debunked.” For one, a single occurence does not prove or disprove anything on the subject. But “Global Warming” is more the catchphrase put on the more basic terminology of climate change. Which a shift towards amounts of snow not seen before (if it were to be a continuing trend) in an entire season would be. Or maybe something like an unseasonably warm period wrecking havoc for Olympic organizers at the start of this years games. Didn’t see many tweets from the left about this proving global warming.

Pecking Order

The pecking order on the playground determines who is the strongest and who is the weakest and who is that crazy red headed child that you just don’t want to fight as he has been known to bite.  The rules of engagement on the playground are fairly simple.  Don’t start a fight with anyone higher than you on the pecking order, don’t start a fight with someone too much lower as this is looked upon as bullying and never ever start a fight with that red headed kid.  As all children know this “order” on the playground is essential not to encourage or create conflict but to avoid it.  In the real world we have examples of this such as the mutual assured destruction theory that the nuclear proliferation brought to the world as the US and former USSR accumulated more nuclear weapons then anyone would ever need.

So where am I going with all of this in terms of Middle East politics?  Well, I read the discussion between Syria and Israel the other day with both sides threatening to crush the other in all out war and suddenly realized that the Middle East pecking order has been disturbed.  For the better part of the last 30 years it has been clear to countries such as Syria that Israel was not to be challenged in all out war.  This thinking came about after some wars that ended very badly for Arab states such as Syria were fought in 40s-70s. At that time the pecking order was well established and maintained until now.  As a side note, depending on who you are you may either see Israel as fairly high on the pecking order due to military strength or the red headed child due to their nuclear weapons and dire need to survive at any cost but for a long time now I don’t think anyone saw them as the weakling that you all took turns beating on.

So how did our precious pecking order become unraveled?  I blame guerilla warfare and terrorism.  It has long been established that even a strong army such as Israel or the US or back in the day the USSR has a lot of difficulty waging war in non-conventional fashion.  When you can just roll out the tanks and drop a bunch of bombs I would argue that these three armies had no equal in war but as we found out in Vietnam, Afghanistan (US and USSR wars), Iraq, Lebanon and many others these armies are not nearly as dominant when there are no tanks on the other side. 

Trying to fight a war when the enemy hides behind human shields, puts no value on life (their own, the enemies or civilians) and generally does not meet you on a field of battle is very difficult.  The examples set in recent engagements such as Lebanon has created a false sense of confidence in countries like Syria that they too can take on the Israeli army.  To me this may be even a bigger problem than the current terrorist problem as all out war between Israel and its neighbors always leads to a lot of death, no resolutions and now that all of these countries have more advanced weapons it can lead to “mutual assured destruction”.  Maybe not in the sense of nuclear war but in the sense that the infrastructure damage and loss of life that a big Middle Eastern war threatens may not be something Israel or the poorer Arab countries may ever recover from.

For right or for wrong I think the pecking order in the Middle East is critical for peace in the larger sense of the word.  While it is peace based more on fear or understanding of your enemy’s power it never the less accomplishes the goal.  I am not sure what the solution is and I don’t want to advocate war but I see two ways to re-establish the pecking order.  One, Israel should stage a pre-emptive strike and make a statement that will remind some of its neighbors what the pecking order is.  Two, a bigger kid needs to move onto the block and establish that if any beatings go on it will be only them beating on someone else.  Obviously in my analogy the bigger kid is the US.  Neither option is pretty and I don’t expect a lot of support for either but I have not come up with a third alternative.  I know one thing, talking has never solved anything in the Middle East so I have ruled that option out.

With the baseball season just around the corner (really – it is!), here are some things to watch in 2010.  We’ll likely have a few articles on this topic.  The order for these articles will be the ever-popular “whatever happens to pop in my head today”.

The Nationals

All the hoopla was about the signing of Stephen Strasburg, but the Nationals also put a bit of money into the team during free agency.  They didn’t go crazy with the money (15M over 2 years for Jason Marquis being the costliest deal).  Nor did they cost themselves draft picks by signing any Type A free agents.  What they did do is make several low risk moves.  The deal I like best is Chien-Ming Wang signing a 2M deal for 2010.  Wang won’t be healthy enough to pitch until May, following recent surgery.  However, if he can return to the form that saw him go a combined 28-13 over 400+ innings during the 2006 and 2007 seasons, then it’s money well spent.

The gNats also picked up several other guys who could help them.  Ivan Rodriguez behind the dish, Matt Capps in the pen, and Adam Kennedy at 2B are among the guys who could help.  They also have some decent players already in the lineup.  Perhaps this is the year that people realize that Adam Dunn is a fine offensive player who just happen to be weak in the areas that critics like to jump on – strikeouts and batting average.  Seriously, folks, strikeouts just aren’t that big of a deal – and Dunn makes up for his batting average by walking a ton.  Oh, yeah, and he hits lots of homers.  (Let’s not talk about his defense.

Am I suggesting that the Nationals will make the playoffs?  Holy crap – of course not.  But they’ll no longer be the laughingstock of the league.  That honor will fall upon the Pirates some unknown team.

The Rockies

Hey, I’m a Rockies fan,  so of course I think the Rockies are a story to watch.  But, really, they ARE a story to watch this year.  Prior to 2007, the Rockies had made the playoffs exactly once – in 1995.  In the last three seasons, they have made the playoffs twice.  Many fans tend to write them off as a fluke because both seasons were characterized by very slow starts and red-hot second halves.  If the Rockies can put together a strong wire-to-wire season in 2010, more people may look at them as legitimate perennial playoffs contenders.

There are lots of young players to watch with the Rockies.  If Troy Tulowitzki can avoid the disastrously slow that plagued him last year, he may make a run at an MVP award.  Dexter Fowler, Carlos Gonzalez, and Ian Stewart should all take another step forward.  Youngster Jhoulys Chacin may also crack the rotation this year.  Starting pitcher Jeff Francis will be returning from injury.

The rise of the Rockies could be aided by the divorce of Frank and Jamie McCourt.  The McCourts own the Dodgers – and we all saw what happened to the Padres in the aftermath of the divorce of their owners, John and Becky Moores.

The Cardinals

Not only did re-signing Matt Holliday make the Cardinals a force to be reckoned with in the near future, but it also sent a strong message to Albert Pujols that management is truly interested in having a strong team around him (and thus making it more likely that they will be able to re-sign him).  I’ve been impressed with Pujols since seeing him during his brief stint with the Peoria Chiefs (low A).  Making Albert Pujols happy is a good idea.

On the field, Pujols and Holliday are a fearsome combination in the 3-4 spots in the lineup and Carpenter and Wainright similarly strike fear in opposing hitters at the top of the rotation.  I’m struggling to find a scenario that doesn’t have the Cardinals winning the NL Central, barring a major injury.  Sure, the Cubs might be capable of a run, but you know they’ll find some way to mess it up.

All I have to say about Luge is “Holy Crap”. Imagine going down an ice slope on a sled, on your back, feet first, reaching speeds of 90 miles per hour. You steer with your toes, lift your head just a bit to see where you are going. You stop by sitting up and lifting the front of the sled. Olympic Luge is safe, even considering the tragedy of February 12. The course is banked, with side barriers and straw bails in case of accident. There is an uphill run at the end to help the lugers stop. This year they moved the men’s start line down to the women’s start line. This actually reduced the top speed!

The luge should not be confused with the skeleton, which is a head first sled ride down the same ice slope. Still cool, but just not quite as cool as the luge. Maybe it is the name or just the fact that the skeleton positions is what I use when sledding.

I like the Luge on several levels. First, the athletes are not just kids. Their ages range from 18 to 40. Second, a little extra weight is a good thing. Momentum is the name of the game, the extra weight allows the luger to overcome any friction that the course provides. And third, you get more than one chance. There are at least 3 runs that are considered for the medals. The luger is all alone on the course, just man against hill. Spectators get just a split second of the race, like sitting on the shoulder of the interstate and watching a car go by.

I guess it is the speed that grabs my attention. I like bobsled and speed skating as well. The bobsled run looks a lot like the luge, but it is different. They share the same track, but two man and four man (and woman) bobsled are different from luge because they are team efforts.

Speed skating is just so elegant. With up to six skaters on the short track and two competitors on the long track, they seem to be dancing as they round the course. You are competing directly for advancement until the final run when medals are awarded. Skating you have to compete with other racers as well as the course. The slightest bump can be disastrous for you chances (the sides of the rink are padded to keep the skaters from getting hurt). The only danger of injury is the skates themselves. Speed skating skates are extremely sharp, to dig into the ice for turns. I have never seen an accident involving that kind of injury, and I hope I never do.

All of these sports epitomize the ideal of the Olympics. All can compete; men, women, young and old. They also help to break the monotony of winter as we move through February. Depending on where you live, February can be very depressing. In the north, it is the lack of sun, in the south, the dreary cold and rainy (this year snowy) days. The kids are in the middle of the school year, and the whole family is months away from a vacation. Yes, the Winter Olympics are a great thing.

Monetizing

OK, I swear, this is the last article in a long time that will relate to the finances of the site (although I may announce new store offerings occasionally).

I’ve been chasing the dime a bit lately.  After nearly 450 articles, the site really hasn’t produced much revenue.  Part of the reason for this has been due to the conscious decision to avoid showing ads to regular visitors.  This will change slightly in the future.  We will still block the large Adsense ads from being displayed to regular visitors.  However, we will have some smaller ads in the sidebars.  We already have two sponsors – Irrational Family and Lazy Man and Money.  I encourage you to visit these blogs to see what they have to offer.  More information on advertising can be found here.

We also launched a store, with the help of the free Zen Cart software (reviewed yesterday, right here!).  This was my first experience dealing with shopping cart software.  Even with my background in IT, it wasn’t completely intuitive, but I was able to get answer from other folks on the internet, and the store is basically configured the way I like it now.  My fiction eBooks (PDF format) are available for purchase ($3.65 for volumes 1 or 2, $1.95 for volume 3).

There is also a tip jar for the staff writers.  I stress that there is absolutely no obligation to donate.  If you don’t donate, you will continue to get all of the features of The Soap Boxers.  If you do choose to donate, simply place the writer in your cart and change the quantity to reflect the amount of your tip, in full dollars.  If the writer doesn’t fit in your cart, I’d suggest a fireman’s carry.

We will also be adding audio versions of the stories!  I haven’t finalized details, but my thought is that audio versions of the smaller stories will be 50 cents and that the 10,000 word stories will be $4.  In between stories (such as 2-3 part stories) will be somewhere in the middle (probably $1).

We will be modifying the current loyalty discount program on April 1.  Regular visitors  should click the tab just to the right of “Home” in the blue bar for details.  RSS readers should click the eBook link in the RSS feed signature for details.

We will also have an unlimited annual pass.    This will allow downloading of any the PDF eBooks as well as audio books.  Currrently, we have about 45 written stories in our collection.  Over the course of the next 2-3 months, these will be converted to audio.  For a limited time, the price of the annual pass will be set at $9.  Additionally, these passes will be good for 15 months, rather than 12! This is less than the combined cost of the three eBooks – and will also allow you access to unlimited audio stories as they become available.  Essentially, you’re buying the PDFs and getting the MP3s (as well as future PDFs) for free.  Once we have twenty audio stories online, this offer will disappear – so take advantage now.

We also expect to have combo packs for sports and crime – allowing you to download several audio stories for one low price.

I’m also looking for readers for the audio versions.  I’m not able to offer any cash up front, but will pay 30% of gross sales.  This means that it’s unlikely that you’ll get rich from this work, but if a story is reasonably popular, you might make a few bucks and gain some exposure.  If you’re a longtime reader of The Soap Boxers, perhaps you’d be interested in donating a bit of your time to read a few stories, rather than leaving a cash tip.  (Note: if you choose to donate your time, the 30% share will be split amongst the other writers of The Soap Boxers).  I’m guessing that you can knock out a story in fifteen minutes.

I have a degree in accounting, so rest assured that annual passes will be properly allocated (based on a weighted average of the cost of the items downloaded by annual pass purchasers) and that everyone will receive their fair share of the annual pass fee.

I’m looking for an assortment of voices and would like to match voices to stories.  If you have a bubbly voice, you’ll get an upbeat story.  If you have a gruff voice, someone will probably die in your story.  You do need to have the ability to create a good quality audio recording.  MP3 is best, but I can work with some other formats, if necessary.  unfortunately, I don’t have the free time necessary to provide tech support.  I provide everything else – the original story, storefront, payment processing, etc.

If you’re interested in lending your voice, contact me at kosmo@observingcasually.com

Olympics

We have dispatched a reporter to Vancouver to cover some of the happenings to the Olympics.  OK, maybe we found out about Joe Neuman’s trip and asked him to provide some coverage for The Soap Boxers while he is there.  You can also follow Joe on twitter.  We may try to do more of this sort of thing in the future – piggybacking on the exciting lives of others.

Random thoughts

I’ve been running low on sleep lately 🙁

Pitchers and catchers have reported to Spring Training

I was really bummed by Erin Hamlin’s poor performance at the Olympics.

This looks nifty diamond when I’m composing in WordPress, but is a bunch of jumbled paragraphs to you

Don’t buy gold coins, silver coins, or “state dollar bills” from magazine or TV ads.  The have negligible value to collectors.

Sarah Palin and The Family Guy are having a spat.  Interestingly, both part of the Fox family.

There may be an upcoming recall of Toyota Corollas.  Not a good year for Toyota so far.

I’m glad that Tiger Woods is sorry.  It would be disturbing if he wasn’t sorry.

Dude, that was quite the crash in the Super G.

I recently got consumed with the idea of getting a storefront online. The store will have my fiction eBooks and and, in the future, some audio versions of those books. There will be a lot more about the store tomorrow, so I won’t dwell on the details.

I asked for some advice on how best to go about this. I received good suggestions about working with web sites that routinely sell eBooks for people. Unfortunately, the setup fees were more than I wanted to deal with – I wanted to keep more of the money in house, so that I could afford to charge a lower rate to customers.

This led me to a product called Zen Cart, which was advertised as a “one step install” on my web host, Dreamhost. Let’s look at the good and bad of Zen Cart,

What Zen Cart did right

First of all, Zen Cart is free. How does the company manage to stay in business? They sell a manual, of course. I’m a big fan of this business model. It’s possible to use the product completely for free if you can Google to find the answers to your questions (as I did). If you like it well enough, you can always leave a donation later.

The installation itself actually was pretty easy. A big chunk of the praise goes to Dreamhost for this, though. All the necessary databases are set up by invisible hands, and Dreamhost sends you an email cheat sheet to guide you through the installation screens. I stumbled through the screens a bit because I wasn’t paying attention. Once I actually read what was written, I did much better.

The product is actually pretty feature rich. More features than I needed, really. It has support for multiple tax structures (for each state, for example), allows various payment methods (including pretty cool PayPal integration), digital products (the files are stored within the Zen Cart installation), coupons, and much, much more. I’ve barely scratched the surface, since I had fairly minimal needs.

What Zen Cart did wrong

Setting up downloadable products was not very intuitive. I finally figured out how to do this by Google’ing for the answer. It involves setting up and “option name” and “option value” and configuring this option to point to a file. I was expecting to perhaps just check a box for “this product contains a download” and be prompted for the file location.  There are a lot of people interested in selling their intellectual property on the internet.  A quick-to-setup solution would gain a lot of fans.

On the subject of downloads, when you configure the product, you type in the file name, rather than using a dropdown box to select it from the available files. The greatly increases the chance of making an error.  (Oh, hey, make sure you actually TEST the process).  Setting up a multi-part file was even a bit different.  In the end, I was able to set this all up, and the downloads enable after the cutomers finished the checkout process successfully.

By default, the customer registration screen asks for the person’s physical address. This is completely unnecessary for me, since all I’m selling are downloads. I really don’t care what street you live one. This fields were also set up as required. My fear was that some potential customers would say “aw, screw it” when asked for that much information. I just wanted them to enter their email address and password.

It took a bit of searching to find the answer to this. Finally I stumbled across the perfect solution from a helpful forum member (this guy) who outlined a five step process that involved editing 3 PHP files. It was very effective – but, seriously, I need to edit a PHP file so that people buying my PDF books don’t have to type their address and phone number?

Along the same lines, I had to edit PHP in order to change the default text on other screens, notable the main page for the screen.

I suspect that a manual would have come in handy – or even a step through the tutorials. Of course, I didn’t have the time for that ☺

The verdict

I do like the product. It’s not the simplest thing to configure, but once you have it set up, it does work very well. If you need a virtual storefront, give Zen Cart a shot. If you’re selling products that sell for less than $12, you will also want to sign up for PayPal’s micropayments option. This is a different fee schedule that charges for 5% plus 5 cents for each transaction instead of 2.9% plus 30 cents. At the very low end of the price range, this can make a lot of sense.