Dean Paxton

Category: Flint

  • Flint Water Relief Fuzzy Math

  • Flashmob Pillow Fight In Flint!

    There’s going to be a flashmob pillow fight in Flint!   Just like the one I posted about last week in Tornoto.  Kind of a mashup between a flashmob and a, well… a pillow fight.  This will make the Journal and the news stations scratch their heads…

    Here’s the invite, I’ll be there… as well as most of the kids, maybe all of them.

    Thanks to Fat Kid on Crack for setting this up and getting it organized!

  • Flashmob Pillow Fight In Flint!

    There’s going to be a flashmob pillow fight in Flint!   Just like the one I posted about last week in Tornoto.  Kind of a mashup between a flashmob and a, well… a pillow fight.  This will make the Journal and the news stations scratch their heads…

    Here’s the invite, I’ll be there… as well as most of the kids, maybe all of them.

    Thanks to Fat Kid on Crack for setting this up and getting it organized!

  • Strange Weather We’re having

    Unusual spring snow falls on southeastern Michigan. They’re calling for up to 12 inches less than 50 miles north of paxtonland.

  • A Halloween Test

    paxtonland Halloween ExperimentThis Halloween, as usual, we did not stay around the paxtonland neighborhood to trick-or-treat with the kids. Like every year, we went to the kids great-grandparent’s house. His neighborhood is a fair bit nicer, the houses are dense and a lot of them participate. Plus, the great-grandparents dig the whole routine as much as we do.

    We knew that we wouldn’t be around to give out candy again, not that it doesn’t stop me from convincing Mrs. Paxton to buy “handout” candy, that I later eat. Which works well for the kids, preventing me from exercising such heavy tariffs upon their candy.

    Anyway, knowing we wouldn’t be around, I decided to set up a bowl full of candy, point a web cam with motion detection at it and watch the fun when we got back home.

    The candy made it a surprisingly long time. Most people just took one or, two pieces and left. When the couple of kids that finally cleaned us out stopped by, there was a fair amount of candy left for them. Oh well, at least they didn’t just dump the bowl in their bags. A couple of highlights: The exceedingly creppy mask the first kid is wearing (well done), the girl noticing the webcam after she snarfed the whole bowl and me dumping a leaf out of the bowl at the end.

    Now, I fully expected someone to dump the whole bowl and scoot off right away. But, most people were afraid to just take candy from the bowl and moved on. The ones that did take candy, just took one or two and went to the next house. Hell, for $1.98 worth of candy, it was a cheap and fun experiment.

    Well, have a look: paxtonland_halloween_03.wmv (997kb Windows Media)

  • SPAM I Am

    Are SPAM authors absolutely stupid?

    Why on earth would ever want to take debt reduction advice from someone named, “Studs Arthur?” Now, I would probably want to know something about penis enlargement from someone named “Studs Arthur” but, instead I get SPAM about that from someone named “Ida Fishpot.” Now, I may want to buy female viagra from someone named “Ida Fishpot” but, instead I get SPAM about that from someone named “Fred Brady.” Now, I may want to know something about debt reduction from someone named “Fred Brady” but, instead… Well, you know.

    I think that if I actually created SPAM, with the intention of never selling a thing, I wouldn’t be as successful as these people must certainly be.

  • Random Commuter Musings

    mullet_icon.jpg Driving today, I saw an older man who had pulled to the side of the road. He was bent over one of those car window flags you see so often these days. It was lying in the dirt on the side of the road. The license plate on the back of his 2002-3 Buick Park Ave. indicated he was a WWII veteran. I caught a glimpse of him just as he was bending over, with more than a bit of effort, to retrieve the flag from the dirt. As I passed him, I was thinking that small act was really quite poignant. I won’t bore you with just exactly how poignant I thought it was, lest you think I may also wish to prattle away about patriotism lost. I won’t. However, I will ask you, would you have done it? Or, even thought to do it?

    Next, I saw a mid-eighties Monte Carlo SS. The rear leaf springs were fatigued and sagging from years of hard acceleration. There was a large dogs head poking from the partially rolled down passenger-side window. Since I drove near the car for several miles, I saw him stomp the gas at each light change and slam that poor dogs head into the rear pillar of that car. Over and over. The guy never noticed that he was beating the dog half to death. What’s more, the dog never figured out that it might happen again. Again, I’ll spare you the trite analogies and metaphors. But, are guys in aged Monte Carlos, with mullets and wooden speakers in the back required to own a Rottweiler in this part of the country?

    Finally, after a long day of rain, it let up and cleared up slightly. The roads were slightly damp and the wannabe hot-rodders were taking advantage of the semi-slick road surface to help them squeal their tires. First a large van, like mine, did it. Then a mini-van did it (!?). Finally, as if the coup de gras for a fine evening of wishful testosterone induced thinking, a Ford Focus did it. All in the small window that I pumped gas. Since gas prices are rather low here at $1.39 a gallon, I guess there’s gas, tires and oil to spare.

    Ah, the things you see while motoring in Flint.

  • Another Computer Pioneer Gone

    Adam Osborne died recently, apparently. He was 64. Adam invented the first “luggable” computer. From the article:

    In 1981, the company’s first year, Osborne sold $5.8 million worth of the Osborne-1 computer. By the end of 1982, he had sold $68.8 million, or as many as 10,000 units a month. Then his classic business misstep occurred. Osborne boasted in early 1983 of an improved second generation of his product — months before it was ready to ship. Sales of older models of his portable sewing-machine-sized computers plummeted. The inventory build-up that resulted led Osborne Computer to collapse in September 1983.

    Kind of like the .com era only, he had a viable product and sales to match…

    This computer holds a special esteem for me because of the many clones of this luggable that I’ve used. The original Osborne was a tank that could withstand almost anything. My first encounter with them was in the mid-80’s in the millitary. I found some that had been abandoned (for a militarized Kaypro4) and cannibalized for parts. I was able to make a whole unit of the parts and I wrote some little text games for it. Soon, I we were using it to generate simple reports. Good memories.

  • Please Support The War Against Terror, in Flint Too

    support_twat.jpg CNN is running a particularly fluffy piece that speaks about the cost of terrorism to Israeli lives:

    One of every 26,392 Israelis has been killed in a terrorist attack in the past six months. The same ratio applied to the population of the United States would equate to 10,888 American citizens. That’s more than three times the number of people killed in the September 11 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and aboard United Airlines Flight 93.

    These numbers are interesting indeed. However, when taken into the context of good old fashioned American murder, these figures aren’t very impressive at all. Even when doubled, or even tripled:

    In Flint the murder rate is 1.7 in 10,000 or, to use their numbers 4.25 in 25,000. Even when their numbers are doubled and ours are cut in half… they don’t match. Flint is still a far, far more dangerous place to live than even the settlements in the West Bank. The national rate is 1.3 in every 25,000 or 5.5 every 100,000… still far more than terrorism in Israel…

    I’m not trying to say that we don’t feel some empathy for their plight, believe me when I say that I don’t understand senseless killing anymore than they do. However, I do feel that it is not necessary to use such dramatic words, numbers and pictures to illustrate one side over another in that conflict, label it Terrorism, and likened it to our own struggle. The article goes on to mention that if that were translated to American lives, then 10,888 people would be dead because of terrorism. This is over and above approximately 12,000 people that have been murdered this year alone. Not counting justifiable homicides.

    So, bullshit you say? It’s not the same thing at all? Then tell me: Where’s Flint’s “Office of Homeland Security(soon to be Department)?” Where’s Flints Mossad? Where are the armed soldiers protecting me and seeking out potential “terrorists” to be killed on sight? Why must I be more afraid as a parent than another parent in a war-torn nation “rife with terrorism.” Why is it statistically more likely that I will be killed moving around or about Flint, Michigan, than if I were moving around or about Jerusalem?

    I call upon the media, the press, our glorious politicos… Enough of the rhetoric, enough of the hate-speech against terror. Of course there will be another terrorist event soon. Of course there are people who operate outside the perimeters of society that they can only resort to guerilla acts of violence to remain heard. We have far too many problems that remain ignored in this country, in our streets, and in our schools to allow our attentions to be diverted into hysteria.

    And if they aren’t listening… then let it start with you.

    Pic via filepile, link via metafilter

  • Scandal, Powered by Oracle

    Suspended director resigns without mentioning Oracle scandal

    “It’s part of the governor’s continuing effort to clean house,” Maviglio said. “There were enough concerns raised during his testimony and the governor wants to start anew.”

    Elias Cortez has been named and is under investigation for the scandalous agreement it had with Oracle, where they signed a $95 million dollar agreement for licensing (?!) and were told by Oracle they would save $110 million from volume purchasing. It has been said that the state paid $41 million more then the old agreement.

    Sound like Oracle is getting over on this one, big time. I doubt that Larry Elison will cross Grey Davis but, then again, Bill Gates is not the only ruthless software dealmaker. Odd, this guy is loosing his job, reputation, and career over (what I speculate to be) promises made by a a sales team at Oracle. Those sales people are probably retired with their cut of the bonus. Hoping not to see a certified letter from the Atty. Gen. of the state of California.

  • Possible paxtonland outage

    paxtonland may be down over the next 72 hours. I’ve transfered my domain names from one registrant to another. Some folks use godaddy.com, which provides $8.95 per year domain registrations. Pretty much the best deal on the internet. I use gkg.net because my webhost, James Prevo has an arrangement with them. They’re $9.99 per year.

    So, please, I encourage you not to use Verisign to register domain names, not only do they charge full price (for substandard services) but, they’ve been spanked in federal court for rotten business practices as well. No need to do business with dishonest companies who would decieve you in order to part you with your money. It’s just that simple.

  • Fortune Shines on Flint Again

    Sure sounds like Flint to me In Fortune Magazine, famous for ripping Flint, Justin Fox pens a rambling yet slightly readable article of which roughly half is about Flint. It’s a response to Henry Kaufman and his musings about the terrible nature of the economy. Strange for him to try and refute the economic indicators then mix in a strange blurb about Flint. But, he did… go figure.

    Anyway, his point is that the urban economies in the United States have literally collapsed and the suburban sprawls that surround these cities (such as Flint and Detroit) are now the new economic centers.

    Wow, what insight.

    With the odd Flint interlude, the difficult to understand structure of the piece, and the shifting nature of the main point, the article does mention Flint at some length. Of course, with the obligatory “Roger & Me” and Michael Moore reference. It’s amusing to me to read what non-residents write about Flint. It’s as though this city were some socio-economic experiment for them to study and lately, feel sorry for. Too bad there weren’t any pictures… the Flint that can be seen and studied in “Roger & Me” looks and is far, far worse today. In fact, it isn’t even close to being as nice as it is in the movie. Of course, Michael is from the suburbs! I keep forgetting.

    Perhaps a new documentary would be in order, “Crack & Me” would hit the nail on the head. That’s what the “New Economy” means in Flint today… I’m quite sure that it also brings in more social capitol than G.M. did 30 years ago.

  • A Man and His Camera

    flint_logo.jpg Painter charged in taping tanning salon customers. A 43 year old man was, according to Genesee County Sheriff Robert J. Pickell, video taping tanning customers. The incidents occurred between Jan. 14- 17 at Tropi-Tan Inc., 4031 Owen Road, Fenton Township. The undressing woman ranged in age 15 to 57. The man is being charged with nine counts of “eavesdropping,” a misdemeanor.

  • Who Says that Flint’s Number Don’t Climb?

    flint_logo.jpg Flint has managed to increase the instances of gonorrhea 20% in just the last year alone!

    While the STD is on the decline on a national level, here in Flint, the number of people with gonorrhea has gone up 20 percent since last year, and experts worry there are more cases out there among people that remain untreated.

    “The national gonorrhea rate stabilized in 2000 after rising 9 percent from 1997-99, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reported recently. But STDs rose in 2000 in 13 of the 20 cities with the highest rates.”

    Does this corelate to the amount of strip clubs, the jobless rate, or the ethnic diversity? The world may never know. Regardless, Flint continues to disprove its detractors speculations that Flint can’t improve anything.

  • GM worker fired over anthrax

    GM worker fired over anthrax practical joke. “…A worker at the General Motors plant in Wentzville attempted to play an anthrax joke on his supervisor on Oct. 17 by sticking an envelope of sweetener inside a newspaper. He lost his job last week and now he faces misdemeanor criminal charges. Melvin Hill, 47, was charged Tuesday with attempted assault…”

    Okay, I expected this of that generation and with that particular employer (A+ for picking sweetener). While on the clock to boot (B+ for creativity). But, I didn’t expect the St. Louis UAW to beat the Flint UAW to the punch. Attention Flint Autoworkers: C’mon guys… you’re slipping (you guys get an F for not doing the assignment).