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I just read an article about how the creator of the hilarious show “Modern Family” wants to remove the show from the online world forcing people to watch the show on an actual over-the-air or cable/satellite TV. He’s claiming that they aren’t getting the credit for the popularity because the ratings don’t reflect the numbers they’re getting online. (There are about 2 million people enjoying this show online) Now, the ultimate slap in the face would be if ABC canceled the show because of low on-air ratings/ad revenue while the viewers existed, but were just online.

The ad business hasn’t caught up to the content providers when it comes to online video. There’s just not the same amount of money generated from online content as there is on-air content… I guess I should be thankful for that considering I work at a TV station, but it raises the question, who is online content for? If a network (ABC) can make more money (as is the claim of the Modern Family creator) by restricting its content to TV, then why put it online? It clearly isn’t for the advertisers, and therefor, it’s not really for the network’s sake…. it must be solely for the viewer…. interesting.

Ok, I realize ABC does make money from their online video efforts, and that they probably disagree with the show’s creator and his plan to increase ratings (they said no and are keeping the show online), but it makes you wonder… do the networks know something that we don’t or are they just trying really hard to make online content work?

You’d think content creators would be all for this, because it means they can eventually cut out these middle man networks and run their show like a straight to the consumer business. That certainly would be an interesting place for the video content business end up, and I think it’s exactly what will kill the TV industry.

Just take a look at whats been going on with the recording industry in the last 10 years. More and more artists are skipping the major label method of making it big and doing things independently. With the internet and recording technology costs decreasing, it’s crazy easy. Now once mainstreamed bands like the Smashing Pumpkins are taking stock in this idea. Billy Corgan’s reformed band is releasing their newest album song by song on their own websites, one at a time…. for free.

Source Article: http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20100802/modern-family-guy-please-take-my-big-ipad-loving-hit-show-off-the-web/

There are few nice things about living in Northern Indiana (I mean, it’s alright here, but “nice”, let’s not over-do it). This post will highlight my reasons for liking this place while updating you on my life.

1. A couple of weeks ago I went to Indianapolis to see some friends and we ended up driving down to Bloomington to visit another friend on his Birthday. Before we left on Saturday; Karl, Lauren and I decided to learn how to play a song in some sort of half-assed rock band attempt. Karl is a pretty talented guitar player, Lauren played the violin in High School, and I… well, I’ve seen a piano before… and I have access to youtube. We learned parts of Apologize by One Republic, and by the end it didn’t suck… which was surprising. I clearly need to practice the piano part until my fingers fall off, but Karl and Lauren sounded pretty good. I’m not sure if we’ll ever get a chance to play it again, but it was a fun way to spend a Saturday. I also got a chance to see Chris and Molly, which was cool. I haven’t seen them in a while, so it was nice to catch up. We had coffee in this nice (albeit haunted) little coffee shop a few blocks from their apartment.


2. This past weekend, I went to Chicago to see some great friends and celebrate the fact that Pinnick is going to get married. It was a Bachelor Party by definition, but it wasn’t your typical stripper and cocaine type of Bachelor party. We had a great time just hanging out… you could say we were the ” three..... six best friends that anyone could have”(repeat 2x). I bought a soundboard app on my phone from The Hangover, so that came out often. I can’t go into to many specifics, but to quote Scotty : “All that’s important is that a bunch of guys who have been really good friends for years got together to recreate some of the good old days.”



I know what you’re thinking, those aren’t reason South Bend is nice, those are reasons that other cities are nice… but the fact that I can go on these little weekend trips every weekend is the nice part. I’m not too far from most of my friends and that’s really pretty nice.



3. Today it’s 57 degrees and while it’s not really sunny right now, it has been the last few days (about a week), and that is NICE. The average temperature this winter was somewhere between frigid and ass-cold. While that makes for a really crappy winter, the feeling you get when it finally warms up and people are outside is amazing. Seriously, if you went to college in Indiana, then you might remember seeing people outside, grilling out, trying to tan even though it’s only in the 50s… people are just plain happier. I don’t think you’d get the same feeling if you lived in California or another “warm” state. It’s a nice feeling.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to spend some winters playing Beach Volleyball, or actually live in a city where a bunch of my friends are, but the bend isn’t bad for now.

Alright, I’ve been dealing with this BS with my apartment complex for a little while now and I want to publish this to have for my own reference… If you’re researching Georgetown Apartments, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Backstory:
I have lived in Georgetown Apartments in South Bend for almost exactly a year. From last February through November I lived in a one bedroom, by myself… Loved it. Then in November, in an attempt to save a few bucks, I got a roommate and moved into a two bedroom on the other side of the complex… hate it. Now, the roommate isn’t the problem here… that’s fine, but the apartment isn’t in the best shape and we’ve been dealing with the apartment staff on a weekly basis to get some of it take care of… (they cleaned the kool-aid stains that were all over the apartment when we moved in… yay!). However there are still a couple of problems…

1. The water heater is janky… it’s 16 years old and only provides about 5-8 minutes of a warm shower before it’s cold. I’ll come back to this….
2. The electric Bill.

Shortly after the new year I got my first electric bill (which I didn’t pay much attention to until it was due mid-January) and it was $213… I had a credit with the electric company for $92, so to me (I didn’t look at the bill too closely) it looked like a reasonable electric bill for a winter month (I have electric heat)... Then my January bill came, it was $243… this time I had no credit left and was showing a balance of $243… wtf. So I called the electric company.. there must be something wrong with this. They told me that the reading was correct and that it was “about on par with other winter months at that physical address”. So I called the apartment complex, still bitter about the stains and the water heater, to ask why the fleck my electric usage was so high. They sort of agreed it was too high and sent someone over to look at the furnace… maintenance determined it was fine.

See the problem here is that when I lived in my one bedroom (850 sq. feet) the electric usage was A LOT less than the 2 bedroom (1050 sq. feet). See the usage and bill chart:
Now, I know what you’re thinking… it’s clearly because it’s so much colder out coupled with the 2 bedroom apartment, but look at the average monthly temps:
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Notice how the average temperature in December was higher than February, well so was the electric bill. (I realized that the January bill was spanning 35 days, but the December and February bills only spanned 28 days. This is an important note, because it means that apples to apples is really comparing December to February.

Even though it’s colder (we keep the heat at 65 degrees) and it’s a couple hundred square feet bigger, I don’t think the bill should be this high. They have assured me the furnace is one of the newest ones in the complex and that it’s not defective. If this is true, then it’s likely something else, because we just don’t use that much electricity. I immediately pointed to the water heater, which I know is old and has issues. I did a little research and found out that the older a water heater gets the less efficient it becomes…. yesterday they checked the water heater and said it was fine… replaced a couple of valves and left a note saying all way a-okay. Also said that we’re only gonna get 12 minutes of water out of that thing, “that’s just all [we’re] gonna get.” Today, I took a shower before work and got in a solid 6 minutes before I turned the cold water off and I was coasting through the rest of the warm water from the “hot” tap.

The apartment manager offered me a $50 voucher for my March rent to help make up for the high electric costs, which I thanked her for but have asked for a history from the electric company of the monthly usage for that apartment for the last 12 months. If it’s the water heater, I don’t want to find out in May when I’m still getting high electric bills. I’m still waiting for that history, but I’ll post an update when I get it.

3. The Staff is small, 3 people manage the office. The office manager Meg seems very nice and accommodating, but she manages 2 complexes and isn’t around very often. There’s a part-time girl, Michelle, who is very nice and pretty helpful; she works on Saturdays while she finishes her degree. However, the woman who works the desk during the week, Patti, is not very helpful, and actually pretty rude. When I explained my problem to her, she said “try turning your heat down”... I told her, it’s set at 65, she said (I swear to god), “well, try turning it to 60”. Yesterday (we’re not completely sure if it was her), she called my roommate and said:(in an accusatory tone) “Did you change your locks? because the maintenance guy can’t get back in.” He explained that it’s just a really shitty lock and you have to jiggle the key. (I’m glad that the guy there to fix our furnace and water heater problem can’t figure out a door lock). I’m kind of done dealing with her and from now on am just going to leave messages for Meg with no extra details.

The complex is old, but it’s not a bad little place to live. The included garage for every apartment is nice, but the price just isn’t as cheap as it should be for a community that old. When you factor in the high electric bill, it’s actually quite a bit more than a newer place that takes care of their property.

I have debated terminating the lease, and have a friend of a friend who’s a lawyer and willing to look at the lease for possible outs…. I’m not quite at that point yet, and probably wont ever be if I’m wrong and this electric bill problem really is a heat related thing. I do know one thing, and that is that I will not be living there past my current lease.

So, I saw Fun. on Tuesday night and it was awesome. So much energy and excitement from the band and they really sounded great live. When you go to a live show it’s always a gamble as to whether or not they will actually sound alright live (the post-production process can really make an okay singer (or drummer, or guitarist) sound great). There is nothing “okay” about Fun. They sounded great, Nate (lead singer) was able to hit those crazy high notes like he does on the recordings, and what’s more is the energy that they displayed… truly a “fun” concert…. so much so that I’m planning on going to a show in Grand Rapids in May.

I took down the analogy game site, and am going to attempt maintaining a blog… look for new posts as early as tonight…