Goodbye Tim Russert...

Tim Russert, a political commentator and analyst probably best known for his role as the host of Sunday morning's "Meet the Press", died today of a heart attack. He was only 58. A lot of famous people's deaths occur in which I think, "That's too bad...", but I feel a lot sadder that he has passed than many other "famous" people you hear about. He was a really intelligent man and interviewed most anybody who was anybody in the Political field. He would ask hard-hitting questions that could leave a politician squirming to find a way out and keep on hammering away with a nice volley to get to the "inside" of the person he was speaking to. He will def be remembered as an influencial man and his face is def recognizable, even if you don't know who he was, per se. He would be on NBC anytime elections were coming up and he was constantly a political commentator/guest speaker/interviewer/debate host/etc.

He came into my, as well as many others', house most every Sunday morning where he faced countless guests, candidates running for political offices, politicians, and many more, each week, asking very tough questions and putting them in the hot seat, but always fairly and doing it by asking them directly about their own beliefs, their own statements they had made, and their own actions. He was a fair and classy moderator of Meet The Press and became sort of like a member of the family, "coming over" each Sunday morning for breakfast and some political conversation.

6/15/2008: Additionally, for this morning's Meet The Press, Tom Brokaw hosted and had a number of Russert's colleagues and analysts on the show, such as James Carville and Maria Shriver was on via satellite. It was a very touching and heartfelt hour, looking back at the life of a man who from such simple working-class roots made his way up to having interviewed and grilled most of the most powerful and influencial figures in politics today. It really was moving, but great to see all sides of him, talking about his avid sports interests, his strong Catholic background, his family life, and his focus on the importance of Fathers and Fatherhood, on this first Sunday after his death, which was Father's Day. I was really happy to see how this took place in this first Meet The Press after his death and I had a lot of tears at the end, during their slideshow/clips of the man from his early life throughout his career.

Ban the Bottle!

I'm still working on trying to propose a container tax for water bottles (at least, or cans/bottles/etc.), but it seems a longer process than I thought. Well, not really, but I read that trying to write a bill for it would be easier to make progress with because you then just submit it to whoever, like submitting to Senator Cantwell to try to get her to push it further, for example.

In the meantime, something that has already happened that is a pretty good step has been Mayor Nickels' ban on the city of Seattle purchasing bottled water. It's only for the city of Seattle and might not sound like much, but the city of Seattle spent $58,000 on bottled water last year! $58,000!!! I think that taxpayers can all think of better ways to spend tax money than overpriced water, though they might pay for it at home. But aside from the financial savings that will be had, there is also the oil saved from less water bottles created and less waste created as an aftermath and considering how great our water is that comes out of the tap in Seattle, bottled water really does seem like a waste and just a luxury convenience.

Plastic Water Bottle Deposits?

I don't remember what it was that got me thinking about it, but I started thinking yesterday or the day before that we really need to implement a deposit on plastic water bottles to increase the amount of recycling of these. People are buying these in such great numbers, especially considering that in Washington, we have some of the purest cleanest water around. Actually, most places in the US have water that is just great for drinking! People are willing to pay 10x and more for bottled water, which is often actually not as clean and sometimes it's actually tap water that's just been bottled to make it more "convenient"!!

I understand that the problem is that recycling is less available outside of the home and office, where it really seems useful to carry bottled water. That's a whole separate issue, but perhaps by having a $.05 deposit on these bottles, something I believe has already been implemented in California and has been implemented with aluminum cans in a number of states, the rate of recycling of these would greatly increase. In Michigan, where there is a $0.10/bottle deposit, 95% of deposit containers are recycled! 95%!! That's pretty big time, I'd say. Adding initiative to the whole thing is one way that's almost a surefire way to get these items recycled, whether it's by the consumers who are using the bottles or people turning trash into cash. Regardless of who recycled them, they'd be getting recycled and decreasing our consumption of petroleum, which is already known to not be a limitless resource for us on this planet. They'd also be decreasing our output of garbage, which is seemingly becoming something we have an endless supply of, especially in the US where consumption of everything is just ridiculously high.

Perhaps we can move towards a statewide bottle deposit for Washington or even further, a national program that could help on an even greater scale, but something needs to be done to increase the sad rate of recyling of these items that have become a staple in so many people's purses, backpacks, cars, briefcases, hands, and everywhere else people can fit them. I'd still rather promote using reusable bottles and refilling them, which saves everybody from the waste and the added expense, but I'm not so disillusioned that I believe people are going to stop using bottled water, especially here in the US, where everything has to be about convenience and the slightest hassle is a big deal.

Ride Your Bike To Work Day/Week/Month!!!

Well, I haven't had as much time as I was hoping for and didn't get a chance to mention it here, but today is Ride Your Bike To Work Day! They are expecting about 20,000 people will commute to work via bike today, higher than last year's approximately 19,000. It is also Ride Your Bike To Work Week! This month, haha, is also Ride Your Bike To Work Month, to top it all off! While I meant to write more about this sooner, at the very least, sooner than the actual day of, I have been trying to increase my own riding and have been riding daily to get back into more frequent riding. I made my usual commute from Edmonds to Redmond for work today and it was great to be out as the weather was already beautiful at 5:30am and there were more people out than the typical 5-6 people I will usually see at this early hour. Also, there were booths set up along the trail "celebrating" today and offering free foods, lights, water bottles, and such! It's great to see people out biking, even if some people will indeed only do it for just today! If it is just for today, still 20,000 people are not in their cars, not clogging up traffic, and not kicking in a little more to the pollution out there! I tried to get some more people biking this week by giving one friend of mine one of my old bikes and going to another friend's house and actually fixing his bike and then riding into work with him the next day to get him on the bike to start. It's a great time to start getting into shape for the summer, saving up some money on the increasing gas costs, especially with Memorial Day and the typical rising Summer gasoline prices on the way, and just strengthening that "bike engine" a little bit to prime it and get it running a little smoother!

Simple Savings for a Budget-Minded Time

Right now, times are really at the point where people are watching their pennies in their pocketbooks. People are also thinking an awful lot more about living a little "greener". I've got to say, one of the simplest things that I did to save a little money and cut down a little bit of the landfill growth was to switch to cloth napkins. I can't lie, though... I've been guilty on more than one occasion of grabbing enough napkins from a napkin dispenser while eating to wipe up the whole restaurant. Sometimes, I feel like I'm grabbing napkins for everybody I know. It became ingrained in me for so long. I even used to grab a handful to load up my (already stuffed full) glovebox in my car. I've tried to reduce that nowadays and not use a napkin once and then go back to the large stack next to my plate.

I think I made the switch a little over two years ago. I hadn't even really thought about the usage until one day, I was talking to my sister (criticizing is probably more accurate) about the amount of paper towels that she was pulling off the roll to clean up a spill of water or something along those lines. She remarked about it being the same as using napkins after I'd scolded her and talked about the waste of paper and that's when it hit me. I wasted so many napkins all the time without even batting an eye. That night, I went to Target and looked for cloth napkins. I found a cool color that would go with my place and grabbed a couple of packs and left, very content with myself.

I guess it's also just an easy project if you're handy with a sewing machine to make up a few, as all you need is some scrap material of your choice to stitch the ends up on. That way, you could make some that you wouldn't feel hesitant about using on a mess because you can choose the material. Heck, you can make some just for the messy meals, make or buy some nice ones for guests, etc.

Since I began using cloth napkins, I feel like it's the only way to go. I used to love cloth napkins when you'd go to a nice restaurant and it just felt classy. Now, I could enjoy that feeling all the time! I even keep a couple at work for my lunches there. It feels good and it's just an even better feeling knowing that I'm saving all the wasted paper of paper napkins. It's cheaper as well even considering you have to wash them, as you can just throw them into an already full laundry and it doesn't really even make any difference to the load!

Another unfortunate thing about paper napkins is that they're almost always not recyclable. On one part, usually recyclables with food/food particles aren't considered recyclable by a lot of recycling programs and I also read that paper napkins contain something in them that can clog recycling machinery (I don't have a source handy). This means that they're pretty much going straight into the landfills that we've already got pretty well loaded and expanding.

For me, this change was just one more thing that made me feel like I was doing my part and walking the walk of all the talk I do about environmental issues and reducing waste. This isn't to say that I don't ever use paper napkins when I'm out and about or when washing my hands at a public restroom, but I'm just more conscious of my usage these days.

DJ WARS

The West Central Florida DJ Scene: Corruption (or Disruption) on the Dance Floor?

When you first think of the DJ scene in West Central Florida, you think of the weddings, the parties, the fun. You don’t think of the beefs between DJ’s, the constant fighting over who rules the turf, who DJ’s best, who runs the West.

Unfortunately, that seedier underbelly of the DJ scene unveiled itself to me, an unwitting pawn in "the game", earlier this week. Needless to say, I was pretty shocked to find infighting where I thought I’d find solidarity, bickering rather than brotherhood…

It all began when I received an email from one DJ Marty the One Man Party, AKA Martin Sullivan, West Central Florida’s answer to the call for NY’s finest (DJ’s). DJ Marty has been DJ’ing in Florida since 1994, running the gamut from weddings to Bat Mitzvahs to emceeing parties. His letter read as follows (my personal data has been deleted, but the rest remains the same, any spelling and grammatical errors and all):

"What do you charge Yo & how much you willing to pay Yo! This is a buisness Yo & not MySpace.
DJ Marty The One Man Partywww.djpartymarty.com
Name :* Sione
Address :* ----
Email Address :* ----
Phone : ----
Date of Event : 4/30/2008
Type of Event : Party
Approximate Number of People : 190
Comments :*
Yo Marty the one MAN party! How much does your partay cost yo?!
___________________________________________________________

I was a little bit surprised by the tone of his email and his dismissal of what could potentially be a future customer. I let him know that by sending him the following email response:

Hello DJ Marty,

I’m not sure who filled out this form in my name, but I can assure you that it was not me. Still, this seems like an inappropriate way to respond to customers. Also, if you are into a more formal addressing, wouldn’t your response tend to be a little less childish and not include misspelled words? If you are intending to attract customers, which I assume you are, I’ve looked at your website and it looks like you might be relying on a bit more than just that to do the job. Word-of-mouth advertising is one of the most valuable assets a good business can have on its side and to throw this to the wind is foolish for a business to do. You’ve brought your own actions to my attention, as a potential customer, and attached your website there in your signature. If you are doing this, I’d recommend that you try to be a little bit more polite in the future. I’ve been handed a bad impression of you and your services right from the initial meeting, now. You know the expression about how one happy customer tells one of their friends, but one unhappy customer tells 10 of their friends? It is very often true…

Thank you,

Sione

DJ Marty didn’t hesitate for a second before quickly naming names and pointing fingers. All fingers pointed directly at another local DJ, DJ Junior Rockstar, and all the names were just that one name. DJ Marty sent me DJ Junior Rockstar’s MySpace information as well as all of his business information (address, phone number, real name, etc.). This seemed a bit odd to me, as the easiest thing seems to me to be to just write a quick "Sorry note" and move on from there. This was when I knew that something must be amiss with the West Central Florida DJ scene. I was so intrigued that the whole controversy basically dominated all of my waking hours from that point on until this point right now (the point where I’m writing this, not necessarily when you’re reading this). What was going on? What happened to the DJ Code of Ethics? If things could fall apart and turn ugly between DJ’s in West Central Florida, what was stopping all DJ’s from just rioting and starting a mass revolution?

I decided that I should try to get into contact with DJ Junior Rockstar, AKA Gregory Sanchez, to get his reaction and see if he had any idea about what was going on here or any opinions about DJ Marty…

Hello Greg,

I'm not sure what sort of conflict that you have with DJ Marty (the one man party), but I received some email from him kind of being rude about some contact that he claimed to have gotten from me. When I responded to him, instead of apologizing for the mistake (I didn't contact him originally), he stated that he believed you sent him my contact information. He then emailed me your MySpace information, business information, name and such. Whatever sort of problems you have with one another as DJ's, I just don't want to have my contact information sent around as "pranks" or "tools" for your getting on each other's case.

Sorry, don't mean to be presumptuous in assuming that you did do this, but just that I was frustrated in that this was happening at all and was then sent your information as "who to blame", basically. If you have any insight into what's going on with this situation, I would love to find out! I also think it's pretty inappropriate of that DJ Marty to have sent out your contact information amidst all of this as well.

Thank you,
Sione

I did not get too much of a response back from Mr. Sanchez, though he did seem to insinuate that it really was all Sullivan’s doing. He wrote back saying simply, "I never sent anything about you to marty i never even heard of you. he has the problem with me i did nothing to him he a immature bully and needs to get a life[sic]". Wow. What can I say? There really was something going on between these two and there was clearly no love lost between them! It was at this point that I began to wonder just how deep it went. I began to get a little bit nervous, unsure as to just what I’d uncovered and how serious this was. My mind raced, thinking back to the beef between Tupac and Biggie. This was serious business!

I contacted a few of other DJ’s who work in the same area(s) in Florida as both DJ Marty the One Man Party and DJ Junior Rockstar to try to find out if I could get any more information about what was going on or if it was just a problem that was permeating the whole West Central Florida DJ scene. Unfortunately, it seems that everybody I attempted to contact was very "tight-lipped" about the whole situation, which left me with nothing but more questions. I don’t know whether other DJ’s were just a little more into looking out for each other than Sullivan and Sanchez were, or they just had no idea who either DJ Marty the One Man Party and DJ Junior Rockstar were. Either way, I think that their silence speaks volumes…

The Dream Team

This is just my team. We are the Corporate Marketing Guest Incentives Team of Wyndham Vacation Ownership. I'm posting this for no other reason, but that I said I would post this everywhere. We were really making the dream work here. From left to right, there is Salue, Kimberly B., Ilana, Kim P., Me in the back, and Jacqueline.