Desert Airs

Opinions

Nike Golf No More

by Paul

I was out golfing and pulled out this sleeve of Nike One golf balls and was playing one of them and Tommy stopped me and was like, Woah! You still have some Nike Ones! You should hold onto those!

So it got me thinking, with Nike now dropping out of golf equipment (completing the cycle they started with Tiger and are now ending with Tiger), is my Nike gear going to be worth more or less?

I still don’t understand them dropping out. How many companies say, We only made $750 M last year! Yeah, we gotta ditch that division!

I suppose though when you look at how much they charge for freaking socks it gives you some perspective. I mean, all the rage in kids basketball lately has been these $25 dollar socks that probably cost Nike 50 cents to make.

Regardless, I’ll miss Nike. I thought their gear was good, maybe not top tier, but good. I never liked the way the clubs hit, but we still ended up with more Nike gear than anything else. We have three Nike Bags, Two Nike sets of clubs, and I’ve probably bought more Nike golf balls than any other brand (that’s not saying a whole lot though cause I don’t buy that many golf balls). I never really considered them the best, but how egotistical do you have to be to say we’re quitting unless we’re killing the competition?

So I’m left wondering, should I play these last Nike Ones till the very last ball splashes or hold onto them?

Roadways Aren’t Playgrounds

by Paul

I was driving back from the park yesterday with my kids and some people were out talking in front of a home with one of these signs. A woman turned to face us and glared while motioning to slow down and pointed to her sign. First off, I was going 18 in a 25, not exactly burning rubber. Second, roadways, aren’t playgrounds!

Parents should take responsibility. It doesn’t matter if your house has a street with a posted speed limit of 25mph or 55mph. It’s best to educate kids to assume the worst. I live on a street with a posted speed of 25mph AND non congruent intersections, but some people still fly through it.

Parents should always educate about worst case and not try to shift responsibility to others. You really want to trust some teenager listening to speed metal to see your sign and slow down? Would these same parents do the same with trains if they lived by train tracks? Or would they teach their kids, you don’t play on the train tracks! (That is a pretty hilarious visual… a locomotive running along and coming across a bunch of these little signs and a woman out waving to slow down!)

Here’s the thing, I understand it can be difficult to get through to some kids. One of my kids would zoom around blind street corners on his bike and it took many talks to get through to him that in a battle between 60lbs of flesh and 3000 lbs of steel, flesh will always lose. This is all coming from someone who nearly died as a child and spent three days in a coma after being struck by a car.

Speed bumps are a horrible solution too. Another form of shifting responsibility. They wreck car suspensions of ALL cars and are just plain annoying, meanwhile your kids are only in that street running phase for a short time. Why even have paved roads if you’re going to add bumps everywhere?

I think everyone loves their kids and wants them to be safe, but there are a ton of hazards in life besides cars that can kill. Kids have to be taught how to be safe in ALL situations. No parent should be running around trying to create “safe zones” everywhere for their kids because, well, it’s impossible. The sooner children realize that, the better.

Fair Trade? More Like This Woman Was Swindled

by Paul

Annalisa relayed this terrible story from a 60 year old lady who took a photography class from her. It was about another instructor who had swindled this lady out of an expensive piece of equipment.

The “student” had gone to a professional camera store and let the store outfit her with nice gear. Some time later she took a class to learn about her camera gear from some guy. He convinced her that her lens (that she had paid $2400 for) wasn’t as good as his lens and she’d want to “upgrade” to his lens sometime in the future. Then, he said he was looking to buy a lens because he needed a longer zoom and would be willing to sell his “old” lens to her, then it somehow changed to, I’m such a good guy, I’ll TRADE you my lens for yours. Trusting him, she made the trade.

When she later took the class from Annalisa. This lady pointed out during the class that Annalisa had the exact same lens in her bag (that specific lens had come free along with another lens with purchase of a camera body). This lady had been thinking something was wrong with the lens because the other one had taken such better photos! All along she had just been swindled.

It’s amazing how low some people will go for a buck.

Dentist?! Dentist!!! I DON’T NEED NO STINKING DENTIST!!!

by Paul

I should go to the dentist more often! I’m not the best at dental care, but still no cavities along with a wake of incredulous hygienists. At this rate, when I finally kick the bucket with all else wasting away, I’ll still have a perfectly healthy set of teeth staring back at the mortician!

Imagine how lucky my kids would be if teeth were heirlooms?

My tombstone will probably read something like… Blah, blah, blah… and survived by his wife, kids and 32 adoring teeth who miss his gums very much!

Unlock Your Phone, Not So Fast!

by Paul

I was helping someone who was having problems with an unlocked phone and came across something kind of nasty from Samsung and the carrier’s network. The phone had all the hardware to work right with other carriers but Samsung had coded it to only REALLY work with that carrier’s network. I found a way to reprogram the lte bands, which was the biggest issue, so now it works fully but… seriously?

So the story goes that phones used to be proprietary and networks “subsidized” the costs through the high monthly payments. Phones got more sophisticated and personal and the government forced the carriers to unlock the phones for customers who want to leave. So now the manufacturers program the phones not to work well when unlocked…

I think that if you pay full price for a phone that has the hardware to work on other networks, it should work fully when unlocked. Why pay full price to a carrier for a crippled phone that doesn’t get updates as quick as those bought direct from the manufacturer (due to carrier bloat) AND that’s worth half of what a fully unlocked phone is worth after-market?

What’s dumb in this case, was if he had bought the international variant, the phone would have natively been unlocked with all the bands ready to go.

Truthfully, everyone now-a-days should just buy direct from the manufacturer; get away from all the carrier branded phones.