Blockbuster

I haven't been to Blockbuster to rent a DVD in long time.  I use to go once a month to use some free coupons I had, but it was less hassle and personal cost than to just get what I want from Red Box for a buck.  Thus, I stopped answering surveys to get the free passes and stopped renting from Blockbuster.

Last night we all wanted to see Despicable Me.  It wasn't going to be in Red Box until the middle of January.  I could've waited till January, but I figured I would splurge.

I found that since it was a very new release it was going to cost $4.99.  The other new releases were $2.99.  I expected to be gouged by Blockbuster, but even 5 dollars was more of a gouging than I anticipated.  Then I stood in line for 15 minutes or so.

As I waited I noticed a lady get up there and say that she had lost her Blockbuster card.  She wanted to know if they could look her up by her name.  They said they could if she had rented a video in the last three months.  She had not.  They then asked if she wanted to sign up for a new card.  The look on her face said that she did not, but she likely had a movie her kid wanted and she had already invested 15 minutes in line, so she pulled out of line and started to fill out the paperwork.

Finally I get to the front of the line and the lady is still filling out paperwork.  I was entirely ready to walk out without the movie if they told me my card was no good and I had to fill out a new form, because I hadn't used it in years, let alone in the last three months.

The card worked and then the cashier gave me a spiel about some new policies.  Apparently the extra Blockbuster tax for really new releases is a new thing.  Not only are they charging 2 bucks more for them, but they give you one day less with them than if it was just a regular new release.  I rolled my eyes since Blockbuster is a dieing business with their current model and they do everything they can to make it unappealing to people.

With Blockbuster getting movies as soon as they hit video and charging a premium for them and with Red Box not getting them till a month later and at that point Blockbuster's price drops I have a theory about what is going on.

One could wonder why the movie companies give the new releases to Blockbuster when it is becoming more and more unpopular and Red Box is preferred by many more people.  My guess is that the movie companies are going to prop up Blockbuster as long as they can since they probably charge Blockbuster and Red Box the same for the videos.  Once dollar videos are the norm that give Red Box the power to negotiate lower cost from the movie companies.  Of course, I also foresee Red Box prices going up at least dollar.

There is likely a piece of it where Blockbuster is has agreed to pay a higher price for the disks in order to get a x number of week exclusive.

I saw lots of merchandising in Blockbuster.  The usual candy and popcorn, but also stuffed toys from movies and various things like that.  A strategy that could save them might be to focus on getting people in with competitive prices on games and videos and then getting them to buy the other stuff.  They don't have to deeply discount that stuff, but make them unique and not inflate the price.  People would perhaps think of gifts for people and they might even get a reputation for being a good place to pick up unique movie themed gifts.

They could even have some Red Box like machines there to dispense the movies, thus making more room for merchandise and save money on employees.  Another idea could be to change from being a brick and mortar business at all and switch to machines outside of partner businesses while perfecting a streaming business.

Even though streaming is much more convenient than physical media I think there will be a large market for it for a while to come.  For example, streaming does not work well when traveling.  A friend of mine tells of traveling across the country, picking up a video at Red Box for the kids to watch in the van and stopping at a Red Box in another state to return it when they were tired of it.  They would also pick up a new one while they were there.  It also works well for hotel rooms where the hotel might want to charge you a premium for on demand video.  A family could go to a near by Red Box and bring a video or two back to the motel.  There is also large part of the population to which streaming will be too complicated for them for years to come.

I'm kind of rambling, but the bottom line is that I had not been to Blockbuster in a long time.  After my experience last night, it will be a long time again before I visit Blockbuster.  I will either be patient and get what I want from Red Box or see if a friend has it and borrow it from them.  Either way, Blockbuster won't get any of my money and if the movie companies keep giving exclusive to the place I don't shop and I choose the borrow from a friend option, then none of them get my money, not even the movie companies.

I'm willing to pay for a good movie, but don't make it hard for me to do so, don't charge me a tone for it, and give me movies that are worth renting.  I'm so use to being disappointed in movies I watch that I don't get jazzed about rushing out to rent them and definitely don't have any desire to go to the theater to watch them at eight bucks per ticket.

MagicJack No Caller ID Data

I was having problems with the MagicJack making crackling noises when I was making or receiving calls.  It was also not displaying caller ID data.  I contacted support chat.  They said to remove it from the dongle that was included with the MagicJack.  Once I removed that it would not fit in the USB port I was using.  They suggest that I plug it into the back on my machine when it would fit without the dongle.  When I did that the crackle went away and phone numbers were showed on my caller ID.  They also suggest I use a power USB hub.  When I had I previous contacted support a couple of years ago they had told me to never use a hub because it caused latency or something like that.

The reason they gave me this time for needing to use a powered USB hub was that the crackle and caller being missing were being caused by a low power issue.  The dongle was dropping the power.  Plugging directly gave most power, but the power hub apparently gave a lot more.

They gave me the same solution to get caller ID.  Although when someone says I have Caller ID, I would assume the MagicJack would pass on all of the Caller ID data to my device.  In this case the device was a phone that was capable of displaying phone numbers and names.  Even if they can't pass the name from the phone system, I would've assumed they could have inserted the name from the MagicJack address book when I have given the names I know the callers as.  The software dial pad displays it on the monitor screen, so the information is available.

MagicJack Crackling Noise

I was having problems with the MagicJack making crackling noises when I was making or receiving calls.  I contacted support chat.  They said to remove it from the dongle that was included with the MagicJack.  Once I removed that it would not fit in the USB port I was using.  They suggest that I plug it into the back on my machine when it would fit without the dongle.  When I did that the crackle went away.  They also suggest I use a power USB hub.  When I had I previous contacted support a couple of years ago they had told me to never use a hub because it caused latency or something like that.

The reason they gave me this time for needing to use a powered USB hub was that the crackle was being caused by a low power issue.  The dongle was dropping the power.  Plugging directly gave most power, but the power hub apparently gave a lot more.

Between the two agents I worked with tonight they had me change many settings on my system.  One of them was to make sure the head set was not the default sound device.  On that same screen they had me adjust the volume, which by default was set to 40%.  I also turn up the volume for the handset in the MagicJack software dial pad.

They gave me the same solution to get caller ID.  Although when someone says I have Caller ID, I would assume the MagicJack would pass on all of the Caller ID data to my device.  In this case the device was a phone that was capable of displaying phone numbers and names.

Cold Water Canyon Trail Near Ogden, Utah

Location:  About 1.5 miles East of Valley drive where Rainbow Gardens restaurant is.  Turn off for the parking lot is just passed the sign for Indian Trail and just before the Smokey the Bear sign indicating the fire danger today.  There is a large kiln is in the parking lot next to the trail head.


Pros:  

• Easy to master entire trail in a few hours.
• Water along part of trail.
• Mostly shaded.

Cons:

• Only short stretch of trail near water.
• Confusing at times to stay on trail.
• Dusty.

This was our first time hiking this trail.  I was concerned about being able to find the trail head and to have some place to park.  I have been up and down Ogden Canyon driving, but had never noticed the parking lot and the sign for Cold Water Canyon.  I had, on the other hand, had noticed the giant kiln, which it turns out is at the trail head.

There was a decent amount of parking in the parking lot and there was a little turn out across the street from the parking lot that could provide parking for a few cars.  The only problem we found with parking was that when we were leaving we noticed that it was tricky to back out if someone was parked behind you due to the parking spots being close together.

We reviewed the trail maps in the parking lot and had some confusion on where the trail began.  The map showed the trail going from the kiln.  The kiln had two dirt trails going up the sides of it.  They were very steep and it seemed wrong, since I had read online that the trail was kid friendly.  We climbed up there and all that did was get us to the top of the kiln.

The top of the kiln was a large flat area with a big circular grate over a giant hole.  The hole appeared the be the chimney for the kiln.  The top of the kiln must have been 20 feet squared and the metal grate 6-10 feet in diameter.  It was neat, but it was treacherous getting up and more so getting down.  Looking over the edge gave me serious vertigo.

Once we got down we reassessed our position and found that there was a trail to East and front of the kiln just passed the trail maps.  It was much more of an even climb.  That turned out to be the trail head to Cold Water Canyon trail for which we had been looking.

Most of the trail was shady.  There was lots of scrub brush foliage and scrub oak looking trees with patches of evergreen trees and a few birch trees.

I'm guessing it was about a half mile up the trail when we came upon a camp site.  I think we passed a couple of guys, on their way down the trail, that were likely camping there last night.  

A little bit before we got to the campsite there appeared to be a switchback on the trail.  We did not follow it and found that continuing straight was the correct course.  Although we were a little confused because the correct trail started to descend.

The camp site is right next to a tiny foot bridge that possibly goes over a little stream in the spring.  A few yards behind the camp site there was a stream that still had water in it.  There was a decent fire pit and it appeared further off the trail and into the brush there was a little alter looking thing that I think was also supposed to be a fit pit, but it was not near as well put together as the one closest to the trail and most out in the open.

It appeared that the site could accommodate a couple of large tents and several small ones, especially if you take the small ones off the trail a few paces and away from the fire pit.  It was very well shaded.

The trail cuts behind the campsite and mostly follows the stream.

Once the trail follows the stream, there were plenty of place to get close to and even into the water.

The trail appears to be maintained well.  There are places where there are switchbacks that have retaining walls. The walls seemed fairly new.  There were not broken or rotted boards.  The same was true for the foot bridges.

Right before you get to a foot bridge where the stream turns left, Cold Water Canyon trail turns left.  It rises above the stream for a short time.  The stream then drops to the right and disappears.  A moment later a dry stream bed begins to follow the trail or the trail follows it, however you like to think of it.

The branch to stay on Cold Water Canyon trail appeared much last traveled.  The trail was narrow and the tall grass encroached on it.

We only went a bit further up the trail after the turn away from Indian trail.  Before turning back we talked with a couple that were hiking with their dog.  The guy said that the trail would go all the way to Snow Basin if you kept going.  Although I did not see anything about that while I was researching the trail before we left.  My research show it was only 1.3 miles.  When we stopped I reviewed the map and it does appear that the trail goes in the right direction to get to Snow Basin, but the part that is on the map appears to stop a couple of miles short.

We turned around and went back to the foot bridge on Indian trail.  We sat and read and wrote a while.  Our 7 year old girl and 9 and 11 year old boys liked running on the bridge and playing Billy Goats Gruff.  They also seem to enjoy climbing on the rocks and such.

In the stream there was a rock shaped like a big chair that we took turns sitting on.  Sitting on it kept you nice and cool.

As mid day started approaching, like around 11, a few bees and flies became very active.  They weren't overwhelming, but something to be aware of if someone in your party is averse to a few active bugs.

We went at the end of July.  The stream was a bit more than a trickle.  Plenty enough water to be enjoyable, but no white water.

There were several man made benches alone the trail.  There was one by the foot bridge we stopped by and I think there was one at the campsite we saw.

When we headed back down we noticed that just past the "switchback" we had seen on the way up there was a great view of the canyon on two sides of us.

I had a lot of trouble finding all the details I wanted before venturing out on this trail, so please leave me a comment if this post was useful to you.  I will try the next time we got to take video and still cameras with me.

Green Canyon, Logan, Utah

We went up to Logan to camp in Green Canyon.  We headed up E 1900 N/Green Canyon Drive.  Shortly after entering the canyon the road curved to the left and shortly after that changed into a rough dirt road.

When we first got there the mosquitoes and other flying bugs were pretty think.  Mostly the mosquitoes were the problem.  We applied repellent, sprayed 2/3 of a can of a fogger, and started a fire.  After that the bugs were much better.  Not sure which of the remedies took care of the bugs.

My wife said she saw chipmunks earlier in the day when she was there.  I got there later and saw a rabbit and a green tree snake.

Pros:

• Free.
• Plenty of rocks and trails for kids to climb on right in the camp site.
• Campsites big enough for various sized groups, even as big as 5 family sized tents.
• Camp sites spaced out well.
• Fire pits.
• Bathrooms and water fountain at the entrance.
• One camp site is a big cave that is up and back from the road.

Cons:

• No rivers or streams near by.
• Dusty.
• Mosquitoes.
• Bathrooms and water are a little bit of a hike.
• Road rough for minivans, but doable at the lower sites.
• Campsites generally close to the road.

Before we broke camp we went to Pounders in Logan and brought back some food to camp.  After we broke camp we went over to Logan Canyon and took a short hike by the river and dam.  As we went leaving we cooled down for a few moments in the river.  It was very nice.

Before leaving town we stopped at Aggie Ice Cream.

Maxwell's House

I had been watching Maxwell's House on Twit.tv.  I really like the explanations of things and even Ray's stories.  Unfortunately Leo brought Kristen Sanford (Dr. Kiki) in to co-host with Ray.  I stopped watching Dr. Kiki's Science Hour a couple of months before her helping out with Ray's show.  Her personality was not enjoyable for me to watch and her show tended to be more pushing a liberal agenda than pure science.

I will miss Ray, but the cost/benefit analysis has caused his show to fall off my list of things I want to try to squeeze into my schedule.

Floorplanner.com

I was that my daughter was enjoying making drawings of rooms and such, so I went looking for something where she could do it online.  I found http://floorplanner.com/products/personal.  It is a pretty slick program.  It let you architect a floor plan of a house.  The personal free version let's you do one house.  I wish it allowed for the saving of many houses, so my kids could play with it and learn to be creative and perhaps explore if design, architecture, or some other field like that would be of interest to them.

Evernote

I have found Evernote to be a good tool for tiny bits of information.  Much like you would use sticky notes for.  It has a web version and a desktop version of the software.  The web version lets you access it from any computer with internet access.