gdp's Comments

Rosscott, Inc. : The State of Biking in NYC

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:32:13 +0000

I see riders treating peds as pylons around here, too.

Rosscott, Inc. : The System 163

Tue, 3 Mar 2009 14:05:13 +0000

Hey, life's tough everywhere. We had ice in our birdbath in West Palm Beach, FL, last month: http://www.palmbeachbiketours.com/2009/02/05/snow... The worst place for winter driving has to be Dallas. I was in a training class there when sleet was forecast. The instructor said that they'd be put up in a hotel across the street to make sure that classes would go on. When I asked if that wasn't a little excessive, he said, "A redneck can pitch an ice cube out his pickup window in July and back up the interstate for 30 miles."

Rosscott, Inc. : Less Blogging

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:33:59 +0000

I echo the folks who say keep the blog going. I read and enjoy your design and type posts and forward them to family and friends who like that kind of thing.

Rosscott, Inc. : When would you use this?

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:06:00 +0000

I get the same feeling when I see someone wearing a particularly ugly pair of pants (think golf). It's not so much that the individual would buy them, it was that someone, somewhere, would go to the trouble to MAKE them.

Rosscott, Inc. : The System 137

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:35:59 +0000

I’ve dangled, uncomfortably, from a helicopter Despite the fact that the newspaper had been critical of the Palm Beach County Sheriff buying a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter, I managed to convince the right people that I should do a story on the good things that it did. I spent almost six months flying with the crews, most of it on my own time. Some of the crewmen didn’t know whether to trust me or not. While we were going through the chicken dance, getting-to-know-you phase, I heard that they were going to do some practice picking up victims in the rescue sling. That sounded like fun, so I volunteered. The last thing they pointed out before we lifted off was a red switch covered with a safety. “That’s the guillotine switch. If we ever feel that the load we’re lifting is endangering the aircraft, I just pull the safety back, push this red button and a blade cuts the cable: The cable you’re swinging from.” He wasn’t smiling when he said that. I kind of got the point. Picture here: http://www.palmbeachbiketours.com/2008/12/29/i-me...

Rosscott, Inc. : Advertising with Rosscott, Inc.

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 15:19:01 +0000

I've been debating writing an explanation of how advertising works on my site (and encouraging folks to click through when they are making purchases). I was stopping folks at random along the Palm Beach FL Lake Trail to interview them Sunday for a story about their use of the bike/ped/stroller/roller blader multiuse trail. (Shameless plug: http://www.palmbeachbiketours.com/2009/01/05/was-...) For the first time (and probably because it was Palm Beach), several folks asked me, "What's in it for you?" when I asked if they would mind having their picture taken. One woman sort of grasped the concept of web advertising, but her daughter knew right away what was going on. I don't mind the Google ads all that much. I normally pay about as much attention to ads - print, TV and electronic - as I do names in a Russian novel. I just bleep right past them. (No offense to any Russian readers.) Some of the Google ads are on-target and interesting. I did a review of bike taillights last week and clicked on some of the ads that popped up next to it. I was pleasantly surprised to find some vendors I may actually use some time. My first Google check arrived from them this week: a huge $46.01 for clicks on www.palmbeachbiketours.com. Amazon brought in a little less than $200. Considering that was for about three months, I'm both pleased and disappointed. Pleased because it's money I didn't have and disappointed because I had hoped to be able to afford a better brand of cat food for my wife and me. I guess she's just going to have to make do with the store brand for a bit longer. My friend, a former newspaper food editor, and I wrestle with this issue all the time. In our Old World, there was a strict barrier between editorial, advertising and opinion. Since we are, for now, one-man/woman bands, it's a little painful to be a blend of those three entities. http://www.jannorris.com/has been lucky enough to attract paid local advertising, so she's got a steady stream of income. She has, so far, resisted selling ad space above the banner, though. I guess, though, that once you take money for it, there's no question about what you are. After that, you're just negotiating for price.

Rosscott, Inc. : The System 122

Sun, 4 Jan 2009 13:49:52 +0000

Old joke: Two couples are having dinner. Husband says, "I had the strangest dream last night. I could see a faint light off in the distance, hear a whirring sound and felt cold air rushing past me. After it was over, I had a great feeling of relief." "Oh, Bleep," Wife says. "He's peed in the refrigerator again."

Rosscott, Inc. : The System 120

Thu, 1 Jan 2009 02:35:33 +0000

We'll be down here hiding under our bed at midnight. It's amazing how the firepower in our neighborhood has increased over the years. A decade ago, you'd hear pop, pop, pop, pop at midnight. About five years ago, it became BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. In the last couple of years, its BRATTTTTTTTTTTTTT, BRATTTTTTTTTTT, BRATTTTTTTTT. I'll admit that the family tradition back in MO was to open the back door and send a shotgun blast winging to the heavens, but we lived in the country. Don't those folks understand that what goes up has to come down? Let's hope for a better year next year.

Rosscott, Inc. : Hang Onto Your Butts...

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:10:24 +0000

Ouch! That's a serious lump of coal in the ole Christmas stocking.

Rosscott, Inc. : De-Dorked Bike Helmets (And Other Biking Things)

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:37:38 +0000

My best year was 2,700 miles. My mileage is way down this year because of an Achilles tendon problem, weather and wrapping up stuff so I could retire. I have a new Surly Long Haul Trucker on order, so by the end of the first week in January you should see my mileage go up. My goal is to do a bunch of two and three-day minitours that I can write up for www.palmbeachbiketours.com. I think the first one is going to be a West Palm Beach, FL, to Key West, FL, run. I get a lot of hits from folks searching for info on that ride and the last time I did it was before a bunch of bike trails were completed.

Rosscott, Inc. : The System 115

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:56:28 +0000

I can really sympathize with your cold weather riding plight. I was struggling with that very thing last week down here in South Florida. http://www.palmbeachbiketours.com/2008/12/13/flor... Anybody can ride in the cold up north, because you EXPECT it to be cold up there. I have a native Floridan friend who just bought property in the North Carolina mountains for her retirement. She has no concept of cold. This morning, she sent me a picture of a house that had huge mounds of snow in front of it and on the yard next to the driveway. "What causes the mounds," she asked. "Did the snow slide off the roof?" I had to explain to her about snowblowers. That, of course, prompted her to raise the following questions: "You shovel the car out in the morning, but while you're gone, it snows lots more. What happens then? You don't leave your car on the street do you? I thought that the snowplows don't allow that -- or they cover up your car there. Then there's the thing where you have to shovel a path to get to it, I guess? Do they have such a thing as "neighborhood lots" where all the neighbors might park their cars and walk to their homes in case of all that snow? Seems to me like they're just throwing snow back and forth. Dang if I wouldn't get a flamethrower and melt a mess of it out of the way! Are there such things as solar sidewalk heaters? I could see harnessing the solar power to heat batteries with electrodes underground or something that could melt the snow, or at least in specific areas like the front walk or the walkway to a garage. " She is in for SO much fun. I can't wait until she actually MOVES there. (You can mock her yourself at www.jannorris.com. She's a former food editor and has a pretty nice blog of her own.)

Rosscott, Inc. : The System 113

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:39:43 +0000

My boss hated IVR systems. You know, the ones that won't even let you pretend you don't have a Touchtone phone. He said that screaming, "Dwarfs are attacking, dwarfs are attacking," tended to get you to a live agent faster than saying "help" or "agent" or "operator." Speaking of Touchtone, back in the early 90s, we used IVR equipment to do some surveys. One of the most common complaints was that we were biased against conservatives because Touchtone service cost an extra buck a month and only dam-fool liberals would pay that. As part of that project, I was watching the console and noticed a lot of errors coming from one port, so I dialed into it to see if maybe the prompts were misfiring. The system used unfortunate wording if the person didn't enter their choices from the keypad. It would say, "I didn't hear your response." The elderly gentlemen at the other end of the line was screaming at the top of his voice, "What do you MEAN you can't hear my response. I'm yelling as loud as I can." Some votes just didn't deserve to be counted.

Rosscott, Inc. : The System 110

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:07:41 +0000

She sent you out for stationery so she could write you a love letter and you stayed stationary. Your stationary stationery condition left the letter unwritten. The train of thought pulled out of the station, so to speak.

Rosscott, Inc. : Bikers Love Me

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:15:05 +0000

Ditto cyclelicious. You manage to convey a lot of stuff without killing a lot of ink cells. (Does ink have cells?) Well, anyway, I like your spare style.

Rosscott, Inc. : The System 108

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:47:48 +0000

You must have read this account before drawing this morning's strip: http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/nyc/33334537...

Rosscott, Inc. : More Pimping

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:14:03 +0000

Here's another bike guy who appreciates the strip and the blog. I find myself wasting way too much time here instead of riding in our perfect (except for the bleeping wind) S FL weather. www.palmbeachbiketours.comisn't quite up to the caliber of www.bikecommuters.comyet, but we're working on it.