Lincolnite

The State Fair is truly a lost cause:

The Nebraska State Fair is selling naming rights for buildings and events at State Fair Park as a way to raise more money.

Even bathrooms are up for grabs:

For $5,000, you can name a public restroom after yourself at the Nebraska State Fair. But naming the toilets after someone else as a joke won't be allowed, said the fair’s executive director, Rick Bjorklund.

I don't know about you, but I really hope that Sheldon and Kathy Crapo have a spare five grand sitting around. (Thanks to the Official Alltel Telephone Directory for the help!)

I have been thinking about this for a while, and now I would like your feedback. Lurkers, I want your feedback, too! Pretty please! It's clear that many of the regulars around here like food, especially when we're talking about local food. Much of my search engine traffic comes from people looking for information about local dining options. Like Nebraskans generally, we like to eat. How about starting an informal food "club"? Every week we will pick a restaurant that we will try to visit at some point that week. After each individual has visited that week's restaurant, he or she will post a review or summary of his or her visit. No meetings, no club president. Maybe a secret handshake, though. One of the most obvious benefits of this sort of a club is that we get to support area businesses. That's always a plus. But there are additional benefits as well. For example, our summaries of our visits to the restaurant will be accessible to folks who try to find out information about that restaurant in the future. (I might even compile the summaries into a format that I will then post in Lincolnite's Reviews section.) Those summaries will likely be pretty varied; some will love the restaurant, some will like it, and some will hate it. That's a good thing. Our summaries are also useful to the restaurants themselves. If everybody loved the taco salad and the funky music, the restaurateur should know that. He should also know what features of the restaurant people didn't like. (Service too slow? Temperature too cold?) I can make sure the restaurant manager and/or owner sees our feedback. There's another bonus that really intrigues me: the possibility that we could actually run into each other now and then. Have you always wanted to chat about the Al-Skeini decision with Mr. T? Or about Husker athletics with D.M.B.? Perhaps you can connect with them for lunch or dinner. I should clarify that we don't always have to eat at locally-owned restaurants. I know a bunch of people wanted to try Granite City when it first opened up, for example. Our purpose ought to be trying a variety of foods and restaurant styles. There's nothing wrong with trying a chain now and then. But if anybody suggests Applebee's, I swear.... Does the general idea sound at all interesting to anybody? Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the idea? Where should we go first? What should the "club" be called?

I installed Google Analytics on Lincolnite a couple days ago. The system hiccupped and gagged for a while, but it's finally returning some data. Lots and lots of data. I'm in data heaven. I've long believed that the web statistics software I have been using has been giving me less-than-perfect results. The data from Google Analytics appear not only much more accurate, but also much more precise. These data will help me tremendously as I continue to build Lincolnite because I will be able to see in incredible detail which features are working, and which are flopping. The level of analysis Google is making available used to cost hundreds of dollars. Now, it's free. It will take a week or so for there to be enough data for me to really evaluate the system, but for now: wow.

The City Council yesterday voted to deny a request by Developmental Services of Nebraska (DSN) to add a fourth resident to each of three homes, making the homes "group homes" for the purposes of Lincoln ordinance and thus subject to regulation by the city. As Cindy Lange-Kubick notes, it's easy to not get too fired up since few of us have a positive emotional connection with "those people" who live in group homes, and most of us don't live in the immediate vicinity of the proposed group homes. The group homes' supporters aren't helping their case with their faulty logic:

People who work with the developmentally disabled said the comments by neighbors are hurtful and discriminatory. James Masten, a DSN executive assistant, said if you insert the word "black" for "developmentally disabled" and then make those kinds of comments, it would clearly be discriminatory.

Mr. Masten's comparison to racism is awfully weak. You could substitute a lot of words and phrases for "developmentally disabled" and the comments would still evoke some hefty emotions. Mr. Masten's plea strikes me as little more than an invocation of Gilliard's Corollary To Goodwin's Law. According to the article, Roxanne Copp noted that "a lot of people would rather live next to a home full of extraterrestrials than a group home." Well sure, but extraterrestrials are not stereotyped as violent pedophiles. Group home residents, unfortunately, are. The article includes this bit at the end:

Councilman Jonathan Cook got personal, asking if it's true DSN provides LeFevre with a Cadillac. LeFevre defended his Caddy, recalling his company's beginnings when he was its entire staff and he earned nothing during its first year of operation "because I had to pay my staff." "I have put my life, my heart and my soul into DSN," LeFevre said. "And I don’t believe I have to take a vow of poverty. I feel I've earned everything that I have." Cook said he wasn't persuaded DSN needed the waivers, particularly when the company threatens to "put people out on the street" while "buying expensive cars for their" CEO. Only Councilman Ken Svoboda and Councilwoman Robin Eschliman voted to grant the waivers.

Does Mr. LeFevre need or deserve a Cadillac? I don't have any idea. I only care to the extent that my tax dollars paid for any part of that car. I don't know anything about the funding structure of Mr. LeFevre's organization, so I will reserve judgement for now. If I paid for his chrome wheels, I'm pissed. Otherwise, I don't give a hoot. His funders, and only his funders, should be concerned with how he uses their money. But more importantly, did you see what Mr. Cook did here? He gave his political opponents some tremendous ammunition. Councilman Cook has said, in essence, that any non-essential use of funding is irresponsible and morally wrong. I wonder how much splurging of the taxpayer's dime Mr. Cook has been responsible for in his career, and how much he will be responsible for in the future. Couldn't he have had the hamburger, rather than the steak? Couldn't that project have been completed more cheaply by making it simpler? A savvy political opponent would be wise to keep track of these things. Mr. Cook, it is very dangerous to allow yourself to be portrayed as a hypocrite. Speak carefully, sir.

Oops, I forgot to link to my most recent adoption update over in The Front Porch.

Hot dog! Nebraska's trusty meteorological prognosticators -- who are never wrong -- are saying we could see four inches of the white stuff tomorrow. Sweet! I doubt I'll be as pleased about the weather once tomorrow rolls around, though. It's not the snow I'll mind, but the wind. Nebraska's fall winds can really take the fun out of a good snowfall.

I wrapped up the college soccer reffing season with one final game last night. I was AR1 for the Hastings College vs. Midland Lutheran mens match in Hastings. It turned out to be a very exciting match. As one of the Hastings coaches put it before the match, you never want to play the same team three times in a season. Hastings had already handily beaten Midland twice earlier in the year. Saturday's victory wasn't so easy. Midland scored first in the tight match, but Hastings came right back just a couple minutes later to tie it up. Hastings dominated control most of the game, but it was Midland that missed the most scoring opportunities, hitting the post two or three times in the match. The first 90 minutes ended in a 1-1 tie. The 20 minutes of extra time ended without any additional scores. As they did for much of the second half, Midland played not to lose rather than to win. It wasn't necessarily a bad strategy, in that Hastings was obviously the larger offensive threat. But it sure would have been nice to see Midland take a few more risks to try to win the game. Following overtime came kicks from the mark. The high tension was only made worse by the fact that the wind was blowing so hard that the ball would not sit still prior to the kicks. Each kick, which should have taken at most one minute (for the kicker to walk up, place the ball, prepare himself, and kick) ended up taking several. One player had to reset the ball at least a dozen times. But the rules don't allow for the ball to be secured or held in any way, so there was nothing we as the referees could do. Hastings ended up winning thanks to two Midland misfires and one blocked shot, while only one of Hastings' shots was blocked. The better team won, but only barely. I'm glad I got the opportunity to referee college soccer this year. I had a blast, I learned a lot, and I met some great referees I had never before wor ked with. I even managed to get a center this year, thanks to a fellow referee's injury. I'm already looking forward to next fall. Who knows, maybe in a couple years I'll even get to center a Creighton men's match. That would be an incredible experience, and it would represent the best competition I will be able to center in this area. Probably the best thing about the end of the season is that it ended on a high note. With all the tension and drama involved in the Hastings/Midland game, it would have been a shame to be involved in a referee-related controversy. I dreaded negating a goal due to a controversial offside call, for example. As it turned out, the only hubbub I caused was when I gave the ball to the defense rather than the offense on one particular throw-in. Judging by the reactions of the participants I'm pretty sure I blew that call. But of all the decisions I made last night, if that was the only mistake I made, I'm not going to complain. I think each of the referees had one mistake apiece last night, all of which were minor. All in all, it was a great match to finish up the season.

On Friday I wrote a little blurb describing the general purpose and direction of Lincolnite. Today I put together a roadmap that will be updated as I work toward the official launch of Lincolnite. Keep an eye on my progress -- and kick me in the butt if I fall behind -- by checking on the roadmap now and then.

Finally some good news at 48th & O: the city has helped to broker a deal that will put a Walgreens, West Gate Bank, Braeda, and Runza on the southeast corner of the troubled intersection. The city will pay $4.5 million to buy the property from Julius Misle, then sell it to the developers for around $4 million. The $500,000 difference is accounted for by a strip of land retained by the city that will act as a buffer between the development and abutting houses. On the one hand this development is a trifle disappointing. This new development will just help 48th & O to look like every other commercial development built in Lincoln in the past five years. In that regard this news is newsworthy only for its utter blandness. The fact remains, however, that the intersection of 48th & O is -- or was -- going nowhere. I may find it annoying that every strip mall in Lincoln looks the same and includes the same businesses, but that's no justification for considering this news as anything short of a success for the city. I'm sure neighboring Lincolnites will appreciate the convenience of new places to bank, buy convenience items and drugs, and eat. And surely we all agree that fresh development at the corner is better for the city than the stark, crumbling, empty parking lots currently found there. I wonder: who from the city was responsible for helping to assemble this deal? The article linked above doesn't say. Nor does the printed version of the story (which is slightly different). Was it Mayor Colleen Seng? Her photo accompanies the online article, but the only mention of her involvement is that "Mayor Coleen Seng said the $10 million project will bring life back to the area, which has deteriorated into vacant, crumbling expanses peppered with light poles." Does that mean that she was directly involved in t he deal, or was she on the sidelines? It is important that Lincolnites know what our mayor is up to. If Mayor Seng did play a critical role in the deal, we need to know so that we can praise her. And if she wasn't, why the heck not? Addendum: One thing about Mayor Seng's role is certain: she has made 48th & O a priority. She has sicced Urban Development and others upon the intersection. She deserves kudos for pushing the issue. I would just like to know how much her involvement went beyond that. I think there's an important difference between a mayor who pushes an issue indirectly ("You guys go fix this and report back to me when you're done"), versus one who leads the charge directly. My impression of Mayor Seng is that she more often uses the former technique than the latter. In my opinion she is passive to a fault. I'm curious, however, if she was more active in this particular situation. If so, I would like to give her the credit she is due.

Will Mayor Colleen Seng run for a second term? Should she? It may be early, but I've looked into my crystal ball and made a case.

Good news! Lincoln is now virtually crime-free! All of the murderers, rapists, burglars, robbers, and public urinators have been taken care of, so Police Chief Tom Casady wants to go after the next most severe threat to public safety: improperly registered vehicles parked on private property. Casady's proposal isn't exactly the end of civil liberties as we know them, but it does raise the question of how Casady knows that a given vehicle has actually been driven while improperly registered. My vehicle, for example, is parked in my driveway with improper license plates. (They expired in October; the new plates are sitting in the house, waiting ever-so-patiently to take their place on my car.) But my vehicle hasn't been driven since October. In other words, I haven't broken the law, nor do I plan to. Would Casady ticket me anyway, then place the burden of proof on me if I want to get the ticket rescinded in court, rather than keeping the burden of proof on the government, where it belongs?

The Journal Star apparently isn't capable of doing its own reporting, so its readers to come to the rescue. Which begs the question: for what purpose? The Journal Star had the opportunity to print a story on Saturday (the mall event occurred on Friday evening), and they did. If they wanted to run a more detailed article, they could have done so on Sunday. Why are they just now getting around to realizing that news happened nearly a week ago? Why was nobody from the Journal Star on the scene at what should have been a newsworthy event even without the chaos?

Dear Adobe, Thank you for making Adobe LifeCycle Designer 7.0. It's a swell product. With Designer I have been able to develop some incredible dynamic forms. I still have a lot to learn about the product, but so far I am very impressed. I do have one tiny little gripe, though: Designer likes to impersonate Windows 95. Designer's performance degrades the longer you use it, and every now and again it crashes for no particular reason. Designer especially enjoys crashing when I press CTRL+S. I nearly broke my keyboard this morning while venting in reaction to one of the three crashes I've experienced so far today. My co-workers probably think I have anger-management issues. Please fix this impressively powerful and frustratingly crappy software as soon as possible. Thank you. --Mr. Wilson