Brian King’s Blog

When I find a company that performs above and beyond the call of duty I stick with them.  And if they consistently do that over the years, I recommend them to anyone who will listen.  One of those companies is NewEgg.com, which sells computer components and electronics.  Not only do they have the best prices on the Internet most of the time, they have in-depth reviews of products by purchasers which is often crucial in the buying process.

But what makes them my favorite online store for this type of gear is their customer service.  I’m not sure how long I’ve been a customer there, but its been at least 7 years with my current account.  In all that time, with maybe 30 orders, I’ve never been disappointed in the shipping, customer service, or the product when it arrived.  In fact, my latest “problem” with them illustrates just how much I’m a fan.

Over the summer I pre-ordered a couple copies of Windows 7, which released last week.  My credit card was billed promptly, I received an email saying my order was shipping and I sat back happily expecting it to arrive.  Yesterday it struck me that it hadn’t arrived yet, which was very unusual delay for NewEgg*.  So, I popped onto their online chat system, talked to a service rep and they confirmed a problem on their end which they immediately fixed, and then offered me a $25 credit on my next order because of the delay on this one.  It took less than a couple of minutes and a potential negative quickly turned into a major positive.

This is outstanding customer service worth sharing with the world!

*As a postscript to this story, I chatted with customer service yesterday in the morning.  I can see on their order tracking system that my order went out yesterday from TN and is already on the truck for delivery to my house today in MO.  This speed is not unusual, and I only mention it for the new people!

October 29th, 2009 | Tags: technology | Category: tech | Leave a comment

I finally got a snapshot of my other side of the family, showing four generations all in the same place.  This time, on my dad’s side – my son and daughter, myself, my dad (and mom), and my grandma.  Four generations!  This was taken at a family reunion a few weeks ago.  I’m amazed at how well my 99-year-old grandma gets around.

October 27th, 2009 | Tags: photos | Category: Life | Leave a comment

This whole process of health insurance “reform” is maddeningly frustrating for an average, non-political citizen such as myself.  We’ve spent months watching the debate over Obamacare and wasted untold man hours trying to draft a bill that by many indications has almost no chance of passage.  Why does it have to be so complicated?  Why can’t we pass a small bill we can all agree upon, and move on.  In an economic downturn, it makes absolutely no sense in any rational way to play with so much money – with a financial outcome that no one can predict (even the CBO can’t predict the cost, because the final language is not written yet).  Use incremental changes to tweak the existing system rather than throwing the whole thing under the bus. Seems like common sense to me.

They should trash the entire bill as it is and start over. It should have 3 pages.

Page 1. Allow health insurance to be sold across state lines, and for the companies to pay taxes based on where they have insurees, not where their businesses are located.  Apparently there is concern that opening state lines will force companies to move to states with lower tax rates…

Page 2. Commit public money to health and physical fitness in schools again. Instill a healthy lifestyle at a young age to short circuit obesity, smoking, sedentary lifestyles, etc.  I’m not talking about throwing dodge balls or inflating parachutes as a group activity (I did this in public grade school for gym class).  I’m talking about getting kids on bikes, skates, skateboards, pogo sticks, doing orienteering, camping, running, etc.  Anything that gets them moving and participating.   Gym class needs to be totally revamped, given more time in the school year, and made an integral part of child development.

Page 3. Tax credit for not using health insurance each year except for wellness checkups. We should incentivize healthy choices and reward those who make the effort to stay healthy and not drag on the system.

The only downside is that this doesn’t provide any entitlements or cash cows for politicians or the health industry. Therefore, these things won’t ever be discussed as reforms. That is why I want this process to fail. It is overly complicated and has little to do with the health of our citizens.  It is one thing to say you want health care reform, which we all agree needs to be done, but there is no rationale for throwing in with a convoluted, opaque, mysterious bill like we are seeing in Congress today and accepting it simply because the cover of the 1000 page tome says “The Fix for Healthcare.”  There are 999 more pages of political insanity behind it.  Insanity that is even beyond the understanding of those who write it!

The correct answer to the question in the video should have been “you know, you have a point, we should all be able to openly and freely read each bill that is signed into law, giving you the American public time to see what it is we in Congress are doing on your behalf.”  Instead, like this clown says, the bills aren’t even read.  What is worse, the Democrats have fought to stop us from even having a chance to read the final bill before it is signed…saying it would take too much time to write so a lay person can read it.  Clearly, they are hoping to pass this before we can digest what is in it.

Do you want this bill to be passed as is, simply based on your trust of these politicians?  I sure as hell don’t (and to be clear this goes for both parties).

October 14th, 2009 | Category: Life | Comments (1)

I don’t normally get involved in anything political, but in the rare instance where my passion (biking) crosses with political tomfoolery, I have to do something.  I want there to be a Tour of Missouri in 2010, but in my view it appears the whole world has assumed the tour will be canned after 2009 – and no one seems to be overly concerned.  Today, as the Tour of Missouri 2009 is underway, is when we need to raise awareness and get the Governor on board with saving it.  We can only do that by continually reminding him that there are constituents who passionately support this international sporting event.  Please consider a brief email to Governor Nixon and tell him thanks for supporting the race this year, but that it would be even better if he could pledge support publicly for the race in 2010.

Here is what I’ve sent just now;

***

Thank you governor for releasing the funds to bring the Tour of Missouri to our state in 2009.  However, now is the time to show support for the tour and publicly state your commitment to bring the tour back in 2010.  Not to state the obvious, but the economic impact by all accounts is a net positive, and this will only improve as the tour gets stronger.  The strength comes in knowing funding won’t suddenly be cut – which is where you come in.  As it is, everyone thinks you will leave the tour for dead after this year, which kills the enthusiasm of future potential sponsors, race teams and organizers, international tourists, etc. This is a self-fulfilling negative prophecy.

Please consider making a statement in support of the tour as it is happening this year if you haven’t already.

Best regards,

Brian King

***

Email Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri.

If you prefer to call directly, 573-751-3222.

Please ask him to support the tour in 2010.

September 11th, 2009 | Tags: tour of missouri | Category: biking | Comments (2)

I’m not sure why I even bother, but I just can’t let this rest.  The 2009 race is happening right now, and NOW is the time we should be forcing our politicians to make the decision on keeping the race next year.  It would show good faith from the state, and remove the dark scythe hanging ominously above this race.  Even as the riders toil in the heat of the Missouri outlands – announcers, fans, and everyone else is saying this race is death warmed over…yet I don’t get the sense anyone is particularly concerned or doing anything about it!  The press should be constantly in the Governors face this whole week, talking about the good things this race is doing for Missouri this very instant, and get him on record either supporting it or explaining why it is bad for the state to support it.

Missouri is on the cusp of losing one of the most positive PR sporting events in the history of the state because they can’t get their act together.  I figure investing 1.5M dollars in return for 30M+ in revenues which are generated from having this seven day INTERNATIONAL sporting event would be a no-brainer. Is it politics?  Democratic Governor of Missouri wants it dead.  Republican Lt. Governor fought like hell to save it this year with an 11th hour rescue.  Can it really be that inane?

There are three big bike races in the United States, though the Tour de Georgia apparently took this year off as they seek sponsors to foot the bill for 2010.  This leaves the Tour of Missouri and the Tour of California with 2009 races.  And here we are in prime time in the world’s eyes, and the state of Missouri looks like a bunch of chumps as we bumble around not knowing if the race will be back next year.  This hurts potential future sponsorships, this hurts television coverage (why bother if it is going to be canceled next year?), and it hurts Missouri tourism which is the primary sponsor of this race.

And, in what seems like a continuing series of complaints about the City of St. Louis and race planners, someone got the bright idea to place the start/finish line directly next to a median full of flowers on Market Street.  Then the announcers had the gall to berate anyone who was standing in the flower beds!  Congratulations – once again St. Louis looks like they can’t get their act together.  As you can see from this photo, the flowers are literally next to the start/finish – not somewhere people were standing just to be mean or bad citizens (as was implied by the announcers).

Don't stand in the flower beds!

I just can’t fathom why it is so important to have the race start and end in such a confined space, with literally 10 feet on either side of the race chute available for spectators.  If you aren’t standing on the guardrails for the entire race to protect your spot, you can forget about seeing the finish in real time.  I found this out the previous 2 years I’ve been to this race.  What this does is force people to hold their spots the whole four hours, rather than mosey around the tents to see what else is there.  Is it really that difficult to find some grand stands for people?  Why not have some high schools provide stands, and in return let them march their bands in between laps for some entertainment for the crowd?  The only entertainment we got was one motorcyclist doing stunts (interestingly enough, he is the only piece of entertainment for three years running).  Come on St. Louis, this is the best we can do?  One act?

This year there were no large screen TV’s showing the race at the finish line like previous years – which meant that once the peloton rounded the corner we had almost no idea what was going on.  This was bad.

Is it really so difficult to start and end the race somewhere like Forest Park, ideally along a hillside so that spectators could relax, bring blankets, enjoy the park, and see a good race without standing along hot guardrails for 4 hours?  Have the circuit go downtown to get your precious face time for the city, but don’t make the fans suffer for it.  Better still, have St. Louis be an end point of a stage race, rather than a circuit race.  Do a shot downtown, then a few laps through Forest Park for the big ending.  I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but the St. Louis circuit race is almost a carbon copy each year.  Time to mix it up.

Finally, I can say one good thing about this year in St. Louis – the photographers were asked to move back up the road far enough that they didn’t block all the spectators who were trying to see the big finish.  In year 1 they were right up at the finish line, making it impossible to see the winning sprint if you were behind them.  Not sure where they were in year 2 because I couldn’t see the finish.  Definitely an improvement.

And not to be totally negative, here are some ideas for improvement;

1. Improve the start/finish area.  Totally unacceptable to pack everyone in on a few small sidewalks, or worse in a half-mile of flower beds, and expect that to be OK.  Think this through a bit more next time.

2. There must be TV’s for spectators at the start/finish.

3. Bring in entertainment between laps if there is a circuit race.  You are trying to promote tourism.  Why not have Fred Bird there?  St. Louis Rams cheerleaders.  High school marching bands.  Allow regular bikers the ability to ride en masse through the start gate to get a taste of the race first hand and get on TV and get their bikes signed by riders later? Surely there are other ideas for entertainment which showcase Missouri that would do it for the positive exposure alone?

4. Have a camera on a roof top so as to capture the look of the peloton as it goes through the gate and as the big sprint happens at the end (since we can’t have helicopters this might be a poor man’s substitute).

5. If you are having money trouble, why not chip in with some other states to help?  The Tour de France isn’t solely a French affair, and it regularly travels in a half dozen other countries over the years.  Nobody wants to lose the exclusivity of only running through Missouri, but would it kill us to have a route spend time in neighboring states in return for help funding the Tour?  Off the top of my head, I could see a route going into Alton, doing a small loop in Illinois, and then heading back over the bridge.  A quick jaunt by the slaughter houses of the Kansas side of Kansas City might add some flavor to the race…

6. Politicians need to figure out a way to work together on this.  The tourism dollars alone make the decision to support the tour a NO BRAINER!  If we throw this away because of politics it will be a black stain on Missouri.

7. Get real time TV coverage.  How can an event this big, in our home state, not rate some kind of full length TV coverage?  I suspect it is because no one can sell advertising for this event.  Well congratulations – that is exactly what wishy washy support from the State of Missouri will do for you.  No one is going to pay for advertising on an event that no one knows is going to be around almost up until the time it happens!

8. Talk to Lance Armstrong.  If you can get him interested in having his Livestrong foundation have some role in the race, even making his group a prominent co-sponsor at no cost, the publicity alone will bring in tons more spectators.  Lance could single handed-ly save the Tour if the Missouri folks could play it smart.

I love the fact that Missouri has this incredible opportunity, and I fully expected the race would be canned this year.  I’m impressed that even at the late hour the race was saved, we were able to get seven professional racing teams to show up (we had 3 last year apparently).  Kudos to race organizers for doing the best they could with the time they were given. The race has lots of potential, even as other races fall from grace (Georgia).  But if Missouri blows this because of petty politics I’m going to be very disappointed in our elected representatives.  Not surprised mind you, just disappointed.

I’m not sure what the answer is here.  I’m just a guy who loves watching bike racing and I hate to watch this slow motion train wreck happen.  But what can we do to force the issue here, and fast?  I don’t know…

September 8th, 2009 | Tags: biking | Category: St. Louis | Comments (1)

OK, I bought my Jeep Scrambler back in 2002 for the modest sum of $4500, which at the time felt like I was getting a smoking deal for a relatively clean and operable 1985 model.  I began working with my buddy Curt Sadler who was then working for Poison Spyder Customs – and together (his brains and my sweat) we slowly brought the CJ8 up to modern wheeling standards.  By late 2003 it was ready to go, and in early 2004 I took it on its maiden voyage to Holy Cross, CO.  It performed every bit as well as I’d hoped.  For my style of driving (generally light on the gas, and carefully selected lines of approach) it was fantastic.

Then, I took about a 5 year break from driving it.  I can’t really believe it has been that long, but there it is.  FIVE YEARS it has pretty much sat in one garage or another.  I was tempted to sell it, and even posted it on Craigslist a few times with a few nibbles here and there.  But my heart was never really into the sale.  But it wasn’t really into keeping it either… which left me in a quandary.

This summer however, I’ve gotten the bug once again and I’m trying to FINALLY get this pig registered and plated in MO so I can legally drive on the roads.  My assumption being that if I can get myself back into Jeeping and I have fun like I did in the past, I’ll keep her for a little while longer.  I spent the past week working on the rear brakes – and I haven’t gone nuts, so maybe I have a chance!

1985 Jeep Scrambler Coming Soon!

August 18th, 2009 | Tags: Jeeps | Category: Jeeps | Leave a comment

I’m putting this here because I think it is one of the funniest pieces of television I’ve ever seen.  It shows Code Pink demonstrating outside a Marine recruitment office and the results are absolute hilarity!

August 13th, 2009 | Tags: current events | Category: Life | Leave a comment

I’m tickled to death that Missouri could rise above the politics and money issues to bring back the Tour of Missouri – it surprises me every year that we actually have this caliber of sporting event in our backyard.  I’ve been to the last 2 Tour of Missouri’s, watching both finishes in St. Louis.  My opinion is that the City of St. Louis does a crappy job of promoting itself during these huge events.

1. Location.  The race has ended both years in Memorial Plaza, which is a center of drug use and is frankly a complete dump.  I had the pleasure last year of seeing a) vagrants who looked like they were zoned out of their minds.  b) drug paraphernalia laying around the park – within easy reach of any 3 year old c) there is a city run port-o-let on the corner of Chestnut and 15th that was one of the most disgusting things I’d ever seen.  I can’t even describe the overflowing and explosive mess that covered the entire inside of that thing.  Totally unacceptable.  I never did see a proper bank of port-o-lets other than a pair in the VIP tent.  St. Louis do some clean up!

2. Finish Line.  I’ve sat through both races, watched every lap, and now we are ready to see the big finish.  Oh but wait, you walked more than 20 feet away from the crowd at the finish? Forget about seeing the actual riders cross the finish line!  It is so disappointing that with the entirety of St. Louis, tour organizers try to shoehorn the finish in as narrow a place as possible.  I missed the finish in year 1 because I was crowded out by the official press photographers who stood out on the street just on the far side of the finish line.  I missed the finish in year 2 because I was off about 50 feet in front of the finish line on top of some steps.  Thinking this would help me actually see the riders cross – I was wrong again.  Poor planning.  You have a choice of either standing at the finish line the entire race (this takes care of maybe 100 people) or you can see the backs of the racers as they cross, or you can see the backs of the photographers as the racers cross the finish in front of THEM.  What about the rest of us!

Not to be totally negative, I can’t say enough good things about the volunteers, fans, and actually having a race of this level on our home turf.  The people are friendly all around and it is for the most part a family friendly event.  I just want it to continue and these problems need to be fixed because it makes St. Louis look like a bunch of amateurs.  And why can’t we even get a local crew to televise the race?

Below are what I saw for both finishes.  I realize I could have gotten in real close if I had fought for it, but that is like asking everyone at Busch stadium to huddle around home plate to see someone slide in.

More photos of 2007 race

More photos of 2008 race

July 30th, 2009 | Category: biking | Leave a comment

This photo from 2007 shows my grandmother, mom, myself and my son – four generations of our family on my mom’s side.  Sadly, this photo is now a part of irreplaceable history as my grandmother passed away this past weekend.  She was a very strong woman who had gone in to a nursing home temporarily and by all indications was about to be cleared to go back to her home (unassisted) when she was felled by either a stroke or seizure of some sort.  It was very quick.

She had several hobbies, one of which was gardening.  As she got on in age she was less and less able to maintain the huge gardens she once did – but she always dabbled.  I think this year we are going to start a garden in our backyard to celebrate her life, and to help us keep her memory as vibrant as this picture.  I’ll post photos once I get it started…

April 13th, 2009 | Category: Life | Comments (2)