Lincolnite

Lincoln's CBS affiliate KOLN (10/11) is making a few changes. First, they have changed their web address to 1011now.com. As one might expect, the switch is being promoted as a user-friendly move. Meh, maybe. I prefer the old address (kolnkgin.com) myself, but probably just because that's what I'm used to typing. I'm a man of inertia. If they really wanted to go with something short and descriptive they should have opted for 1011.tv, which just happens to be available right now. Among the reasons cited for the switch is "search engine optimization". I actually chuckled a little bit when I read that. It's a bit of industryspeak that web developers throw around to impress clients. While the url swap may help a little bit, there are a host of changes that could (and should) be made to the website to really make a difference. The best move, in my opinion, would be a ground-up redesign. In other 10/11 news, Jeff Korbelik reports in this morning's LJS (not online now online) that as of today 10/11's news broadcasts are in high-definition. Sweet! Oh wait, I still have a crappy 4:3 standard definition television. Drat. How are things looking on your end, KLKN?

Now that all is said and done, did the Lancaster County "Super Fair" live up to its (pretty lame) name? We don't have final attendance numbers just yet so that measure is out. But even if we did have those numbers, so what? They just tell us how many people bought into the hype. The more interesting data are visitor satisfactions levels and the number of visitors, vendors, and advertisers that return next year. Members of the Wilson family went to the fair on two separate occasions, on Wednesday late morning / early afternoon (Robbie and The Missus) and on Sunday afternoon (all of us). Both times we encountered an annoying truth: the schedule of events is more a rough guide than an accurate accounting of what would go on at any particular time. The problem was less severe on Wednesday. Many parts of the fair were still being put together, but there was plenty for a group of youngsters to do. Robbie and his friend Parker were particularly enthralled by the model railroad exhibit, for example. Sunday, on the other hand, was a joke. Despite the schedule's (PDF) assurances that many activities were ongoing from "9 a.m. - 9 p.m.", they were not. Most of the fair was a veritable ghost town for much of Sunday. Based on my experiences with past county fairs I guessed that might be the case, but with the schedule making promises I made the mistake of believing it. Shame on the fair organizers for the deception. And what about the vaunted midway? It wasn't terrible for little kids, but there wasn't much in the way of rides for the older crowd. It was smaller than the State Fair's midway, yes, but it wasn't a bad size. Robbie found plenty to do, and overall he had a blast. There were a couple rides suitable for folks older than age 8, but not many. And there were, of course, the usual midway games. Two safety notes deserve to be brought to light. First, why were rides -- the ferris wheel in particular -- still being operated in the presence of lightning on Sunday? Talk about a liability nightmare! One good zap and Lancaster Manor would be the least of Lancaster County's financial concerns. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Second, the operator of the motorcycle ride was going around issuing a dire warning not to touch the headlights of the motorcycles because they were "extremely hot". How hot? How about hot enough to have given the operator a large, severe burn on his forearm? He continued to operate the ride, of course, despite the clear safety problem. Apparently shutting down the ride for five minutes in order to remove the overheating lightbulbs didn't occur to him. So was the "Super Fair" super? Yes, in that it was super lame on Sunday and super dangerous on the midway. I wish I had gone on Friday or Saturday so I could have a better perspective. Hopefully some of you can give some insight into what the fair was like on those days.

I took the day off work today to attend my great aunt Lucille's funeral. She's not the type who would have wanted us all to sit around moping. So instead, I decided to build something. Well, I was chatting with my friend Josh Heyer when an idea struck me. Thus was born inLNK.in. inLNK.in is a simple little website that pulls in the latest tweets tagged with #LNK. Right now there aren't many features: pagination (50 items per page), and simple search capabilities within #LNK-tagged tweets. Eventually I would like to create a simple API to allow Lincoln bloggers to quickly and easily install a little widget on their webpages showing the latest #LNK tweets. Anyway, give inLNK.in a try. I would love to hear your reactions and feature requests. Oh, and credit for the logo goes to Mr. Heyer. Thanks, Josh!

LES has submitted a grant application that would pay for roughly half the cost of so-called "Smart Grid" improvements locally. I don't know about you, but I look forward to the day when I can watch my electricity usage live on some sort of graph or display. I can see it now: Light on. Light off. Light on. Light off. Tee hee hee! Light on. Light off. Light on. ... I'm such a nerd.

Mayor Beutler has decided that four free police officers for three years is a deal too good to pass up. That puts us on the hook for the fourth year (and beyond). That could be a curse or a blessing depending on our budget outlook and LPD's needs a few years from now. I suspect in the long run it will be more blessing than curse. Out at Pioneers Park, Mayor Beutler has decided to hold off on charging visitors to access the Nature Center. That's the good news. The bad news is the delay is only one year, unless alternate funding can be secured. Bleh. I may be out of it, but I can't imagine Lincolnites flocking to pay at the Nature Center's front gate. We need an alternate plan, Lincoln. We have a year to come up with an answer.

Let's face it, I don't give Lincolnite all the love it deserves. Sure I blog most days, but when was the last time I gave the ol' girl a new feature? Try: eons ago. Until today! It's nothing too exciting, but I have added a list of recent tweets tagged with #LNK to the right sidebar. Totally awesome, right? Well, yeah, it's not that awesome. But c'mon, it's something. More importantly, it's a tiny -- but not insignificant -- step toward some new things in store for Lincolnite. Stay tuned.

So apparently Five Guys is (are?) coming to Lincoln. #LNK twitterers are all ... umm ... twitterpated over the news. I have just one question: What the heck is Five Guys? I'm fairly certain I've never heard of it. Am I the only clueless one?

The Lancaster County "Super Fair" (cough) is up and running at the Lancaster Events Center. Are you going to go? The Missus, Robbie, and some friends went yesterday. Some things were still being set up, but they had a good time. Robbie and his friend Parker were particularly enthralled by the model railroad display. They could have sat and watched those trains for hours. A couple thoughts: First, the fair's website is really, really, really bad. The design is awful. The organization is awful. The content is awful. I really hope it was put together by a staffer because if they hired somebody and that's what they got out of the deal ... wow. Second is the matter of tickets. Admission to the fair is free, but supposedly you have to have a ticket. You can only pick up a ticket at U-Stop, Russ's, Froggy 98, and The Fort. Here's the thing: The Missus & Co. jumped through the silly little "free ticket" hoop, but nobody ever took their tickets. Let's say that was just a first morning snafu (maybe the ticket guy hadn't got out of bed yet). So they post a ticket taker and somebody shows up without a ticket. Are you going to tell me they're not going to let people in if they don't present a ticket? That would be ridiculous! If that's the policy, those poor ticket takers are going to take some abuse that really should be reserved for the goofballs who sat around and came up with the policy. Last, the midway is open from 5:00pm until midnight each day. I suppose that makes sense on week days, but it seems awfully silly to not open the midway on Saturday afternoon. Then again, it's supposed to be awfully hot on Saturday so the point may be moot; nobody will be outside that day anyway. This little "Super Fair" experiment will be interesting to evaluate when it's all over. I may be wrong, but the concept sure seems like a giant "up yours" directed toward the State Fair Board for not wanting to move the State Fair to the Event Center. Indeed, if it continues next year it will be very difficult not to assume it's intended to draw visitors away from Grand Island.

I suppose there are more formal ways to acknowledge Dan Whitney's gift to the Child Advocacy Center, but I think in this case something informal will suffice: Thanks, dude.

Don Walton calls some recent Gallup Poll data "stunning". Maybe. I think "not very surprising" and "temporary" are more apt descriptors. The data show that Democrats hold a slight (43% to 42%) edge over Republicans in Nebraska right now. That's interesting, yes, but it really shouldn't be very shocking. The data come from the first six months of 2009. The first few months of that period were marked by heavy Obamaphilia; skepticism and cynicism are now setting in. I suspect data from the second half of 2009 won't be quite as favorable. Not that Democrats don't have a window of opportunity right now. They do. On the national stage Republicans haven't inspired much confidence or shown much leadership. Within our state's borders, Republicans just aren't very exciting. Whatever the poll numbers say, state Democrats should be making some moves. Are you "stunned" by any of this? Do you think Nebraska's Democrats can make hay of this opportunity at the local and/or state level?

Tsk tsk, Nebraska Diamond. Lincoln's "engagement and wedding ring superstore" is accused of not paying sales tax on several purchases. It's a great way to keep prices down, but not such a great way to stay out of court. I like their argument so far: We didn't break the law, but even if we did, most of the taxes have been paid now so we should be safe. It's a bit like a bank robber arguing that since the money was recovered he didn't actually steal anything from the bank. Nebraska Diamond is, of course, due their day in court. Maybe they will be found not guilty. We'll see. This reminds me that I haven't heard any annoying Nebraska Diamond radio ads lately. The phrase "8th floor NBC Center Wells Fargo Center, 13th and O" is forever etched into my memory thanks to those ads.

I spent 26 and a half hours at Fleming Fields this weekend volunteering at the 2009 National Invitational Softball and Golf Tournament, a precursor to next year's 2010 Special Olympics to be held right here in Lincoln. The Cliff's Notes version: It was a blast, and I am very tired. A quick interjection: Several athletes and a bus driver were injured in a crash early this morning on their way back to Appleton, Wisconsin. Details are pretty fuzzy right now because different sources cite different passenger counts and injury numbers. Regardless, I wish everybody well and hope for a speedy recovery. The Wisconsin team was a fun bunch. For that matter, all the teams were great to work with. There were teams from Wisconsin, Iowa, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland ... all over. Their sense of fun and competition was contagious. By the end of the three days the people who entered our little world at Fleming were all part of a pretty tight-knit group of relative strangers. The event had its hiccups, yes, but that was part of the point; the tournament was a trial run before the big games next summer. For example, we got a little cocky after Saturday's beautiful weather. Monday's heat and humidity really stressed some of our resources, even on a day with only a handful of games. That's something to work on. I want to give kudos to all of the volunteers. This sounds cliche, yes, but they were awesome. And so many! I think some of the volunteers may have felt under-utilized, particularly during the periods of smooth sailing. But again, the event was intended in part for experimentation. I want to single out a couple groups of volunteers for special mention. First, the folks from Moose were awesome. They came from Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota. Then there were the girls from Mooseheart, a facility out of Aurora, Illinois I wasn't previously familiar with. They were a fun, hard-working group of folks. Then there were the ASA softball umpires. They did a great job, and many of them were out there all day, every day. They set a strong example for all of the sports officials who will be needed for next year's event. (Hint hint, fellow soccer referees!) There were many other volunteers and workers out there. There were the police officers, for example, who represented LPD very nicely. There were the American Red Cross workers who dealt with a wide range of injuries. UNL Campus Recreation and Dining Services also deserve kudos for all the work they did. And then there were the "yellow shirt" volunteers. The regular ol' Lincolnites who didn't come in with any particular affiliation with Special Olympics, but who wanted to help out anyway. They did their jobs without complaint, and in fact most actively sought out additional responsibilities beyond their assigned tasks. I made several new friends over the weekend, many of whom I'm sure I will see around Lincoln for years to come. Wouldn't you like to be a part of that kind of atmosphere? Please sign up today to be a volunteer at next year's Special Olympics. I know it's a year off. For organizers, that year will go by in a flash. Besides, think about all of the volunteer-related information they have to have well in advance of the actual event: everything from t-shirt sizes to background checks. They have to do all of that for an estimated 8,000 volunteers. Whether you sign up for a day or a week -- the event runs from July 18 through 23, 2010 -- you are needed.

A big thanks to all of you who tuned in to 1400 KLIN this morning to hear me on the Jack & John in the Morning show, and for the very kind post-show words via the blog, Twitter, and e-mail. Although my time on the air was short, I had a blast. I would love to do it again sometime. I don't think I could do radio every day, but I could see myself yakking it up once a week. I just need to set up that pirate radio station in my basement. (Just kidding, FCC!) One of the things Dan (DMB) brought up on the show is the future direction of Lincolnite beyond this blog. It was an excellent question and, if you listened to my brief answer on the show, not one I have a firm answer to. There are several thing I would love to do with Lincolnite. As I have made clear, though, Lincolnite is just a hobby of mine. It could be more than that -- it could even be my fulltime job if I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into it -- and maybe some day it will. For now there's a chicken and egg problem. The chicken: having a product worth "buying". (No, I won't be charging you a membership fee!) The egg: having the resources to create that product. Today Lincolnite is all about the blog. Maybe that's all Lincolnite will ever amount to. There's nothing wrong with that. But perhaps one day it will be more than that. We'll see. Back to this morning's show. Thank you again, John and Dan, for having me on the show this morning. And thank you Lincolnites for helping to make this blog a fun "place" for all of us.

Tune in Tuesday morning to hear DMB (7:00am - 9:00am) and me (around 8:30am) on Jack & John in the Morning on 1400 KLIN. DMB, who will fill in for Jack Mitchell, is a radio pro. I, on the other hand, am a radio virgin. Be sure to tune in tomorrow morning!