[: neon :] NewEnglandOnlineNetwork

Greedy Real Estate Agents, Predatory Lenders & McDonald's Cooking Oil as Fuel Alternative

EDITORIAL

Two bits of news caught our attention this morning.

The first story says the McDonald's units in The Philippines (Makati outlets) will be donating used cooking oil to help co-power Manila's Police Cars:

With oil prices at crippling highs, the project would convert cars in the Makati financial district to run on a mix of 40 percent diesel and 60 percent cooking oil, its police chief Senior Superintendent Gilbert Cruz said.

With approximately 141 McDonald's within just 30 miles of our location near Boston, one can only imagine how much power they could provide for city and state vehicles. And when you add Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island McDonald franchise locations, include other fast food/hamburger outlets who cook with the same oil, the question then becomes, why aren't we doing that here?

Nevertheless, kudos to Makati and to McDonald's Corporate for their smarts and for helping our environment.

* * * * * * * * *

GET RESTITUTION FROM THE LENDERS & REAL ESTATE COMMISSIONS . . .
NOT THE TAXPAYERS

The second story is about home prices in May dropping by the largest percentage in the history of the index that covers these patterns, from a year ago.

Boston, in particular, was listed along with Tampa, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, Dallas and Atlanta, because they all showed a smaller annual decline.

Certainly not the best news.

Now, since we've never been fans of the false market conditions too many otherwise greedy real estate agents have been perpetrating on the public since at least 1986, nor the too many foolish buyers who never do their own neighborhood homework and blindly believed too many greedy real estate agents, we do feel for those buyers who were intentionally (allegedly) misled by their particular greedy real estate agents and/or by the alleged predatory lending practices of too many mortgage loan originators, an industry that is currently the target of Federal and State probes nationwide for too many allegedly illicit practices.

(That was possibly the longest running paragraph ever).

But those homeowners now in a financial bind certainly do not all deserve a bailout from the coffers of the U.S. Government, a.k.a., we the taxpayers. That could and should come from lender restitution (as an alternative to prosecution) and also include the related commissions of the greedy real estate agents as well.

Fat chance either will ever happen, but the fact that those of us who did not get caught up in the hype and easy-profit hysteria - - - while still having to endure the bragging rights from those who did - we're pretty darn pissed-off that our tax money will be bailing them out. Salt on the wound, or something like that.

From a less personal, more serious and economic pov, however painful these times are or may become for some homeowners, in the long run, realistic, stabilized pricing is what our local economies need for sustained growth. Home ownership is a business, repeat, a business, just like any other, not a guaranteed right for every American - - - nor an irresponsible, commoditized profit center for every greedy real estate agent or mortgage broker.

Bailing out America's homeowners will only reward those lenders who made the mistakes in the first place, and allow the greedy real estate agents to keep their undeserved commissions.

That's merely our opinion.

What's yours.

we invite you to email us your comments

Two words for Starbucks: DON'T CLOSE!

It will certainly be an interesting process to watch as it unfolds - - - possibly culminating this week but definitely within the month, and from both a community and a corporate pov (point-of-view) - - - how Starbucks will react when it faces a different kind of customer revolt.

From Sunday's Wall Street Journal online:

In towns as small as Bloomfield, N.M., and metropolises as large as New York, customers and city officials are starting to write letters, place phone calls, circulate petitions and otherwise plead with the coffee company to change its mind.

An excellent read as it provides a heretofore ignored element , i.e., how Starbucks has become an almost essential asset to the communities they're in, unlike all of the negative press and bashing by local merchants they've (unfairly?) received over the years.

Anyway, here in New England, Massachusetts is getting hit the hardest with seven (7) Starbucks closures (Source: Starbucks and Associated Content)

1. Dartmouth Mall, Dartmouth, Massachusetts
2. Emerald Square Mall, 999 South Washington Street, North Attleboro, Massachusetts
3. Shrewsbury Street Marketplace, 222 Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, Massachusetts
4. Newton Centre, 70 Union Street, Newton, Massachusetts
5. Sharon, Five Post Office Square, Sharon, Massachusetts
6. Stoughton, 425 Washington Street, Stoughton, Massachusetts
7. Middlesex Turnpike Burlington,  47 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington, Massachusetts

Five (5) are slated to close n Connecticut:

1. Prospect Hill, 137 Prospect Hill Road, East Windsor, Connecticut
2. King's Highway, 1201 King's Highway, Fairfield, Connecticut
3. Wethersfield Avenue, 692 Wethersfield Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut
4. Evergreen Walk, 301 Evergreen Way, South Windsor, Connecticut
5. Windsor Locks, 209 Ella Grasso Turnpike, Windsor Locks, Connecticut

In Maine, both closings are in Bangor:

1. Bangor Mall, 663 Stillwater Avenue
2. Bangor Broadway at 652 Broadway

New Hampshire only loses one:

1. Rochester Shoppes, 160 Washington Street in Rochester, New Hampshire

Vermont has three stores and apparently all three will remain open and none in Rhode Island were mentioned.

Here are other posts we've done in defense of Starbucks (and against Dunkin Donuts) and we invite you to also email us your comments.

An enormous thank you to the men and women of America's Armed Forces

Everyone keeps saying that freedom never comes without a price - so we never want to forget to say thank you to those who've sacrificed so much for every one of us . . . right?

We were just watching the local broadcast of The Boston Pops July 4th celebration after spending the afternoon in Boston, and the enthusiasm (patriotism?) of this year's crowd was just awesome.

As a nation, we take a lot of shots and heat every day from those who hate us, those who might be a tad envious and those who simply don't believe in that thing called freedom. But our nation has withstood 232 or so years of this kind of crap, so firm we've stood that we deserve to feel proud of our country for what we have been able to accomplish and contribute to world good . . . for the good of our citizens and for the open arms we've offered to others to become a part of this great nation.

So, to the men and women who can't be with us today - from wars past and present - we pause from the traditional, secular nature of news reporting and say God Bless you, the families you left behind and this wonderful place we call The United States of America. The folks at [: neon :] will never forget you . . . but our fondest wish is that as we approach this November's election, our nation doesn't forget you or forget to be so very proud of what you've done.

Sounds of Boston - Vol. I, No. 1

One of the most enjoyable responsibilities of working on [: neon :] is deciding what and when to shoot the video. As we're still in beta, we've certainly made our share of mistakes, thankfully most of them transparent to you. But that's why they call it a beta.

Anyway, one major mistake we've had to deal with was actually internal and involved not understanding the critical importance of video library archiving and retrieval, i.e., what to do with all of the video we've been shooting, how do we archive and label them - and most importantly, how do we know what each clip has in the clip without having to replay each clip in its entirety, in time-wasting real-time?

We faced that problem this afternoon, when we couldn't find the clip we needed to upload to one of our four video streaming hosts, only to discover that it was sitting not in our Macs, but as a Windows Media File on one of our PCs that we hardly use anymore.

Anyway, we came across a number of unpublished short clips we took one day in and around Boston, and realized we could create a Sounds of Boston theme with them, as a compilation of where we went over a twelve hour period in early May.

So we've embedded the Viddler version of our stream since they encourage everyone to post comments directly to the video, which we have indeed done. So look for the little dots along the progress bar and run your mouse over them to see what we've written - and we'll tell you what you're looking at.

So here's 2 minutes, 56 seconds of some great sounds and sights in this beeyouuteefull city we call home, Boston, Mass.

Hey Al Gore, would 'ya talk to the Kennedys for us?

EDITORIAL

Where's Al Gore when you really need him?

Last week, just before the start of the Memorial Day weekend, we took a trip to Hull, MA and on the way back, made sure we shot some video of their apparently very successful Wind Turbine towering above the town. This is the same Wind Turbine, in concept, that alternative energy advocates want to put into Nantucket Sound, as Wind Farms. But unfortunately, sound energy policy - definitely no pun intended - has been trumped, so to speak, and again with no intentional pun, because these turbines would then be within eyesight of the wealthy waterfront homes of the Kennedys and their fellow neighbors of Hyannis.

Last we checked, they have (whomever they are) somehow managed to stop the Wind Farm installation in Nantucket Sound. Whether they've done so for the self-serving reasons of preserving their pristine backyard waterfront views or because they feel entitled to unfettered sailing throughout Nantucket Sound, despite the projected as substantial energy savings from such an effort, there are no Wind Farms in a body of water where they could do the most good and become a respected prototype to further our nation's goal of reducing our dependence on oil.

Is this yet another example of Al Gore, Teddy Kennedy (our prayers are still with him) and John Kerry forever telling us how we should behave, yet they're entitled to march to their own drummers?

Whatever.

[: neon :] original video: a rainbow on Nantasket Beach

Our apologies to those who've asked us to post more content more frequently, but we've been busy with our regular lives (i.e., making a living) - while also trying to learn how to master our video editing software.

Thanks for caring and we'll try to do more.

The video below is about our visit on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend 2008 to Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA, and what a beautiful day to film a beach that we had all to ourselves - with an exceptional view of a magnificent rainbow on the ocean's horizon.

Very cool.

 

Nature's Call: CBS Sunday Morning, eat your hearts out

One of the nicest things about living in New England is the beauty of its landscape - exquisite shorelines and less crowded residential communities inland - something many of us are unaccustomed to having lived in more populated areas.

And although there may not be any 24-hour Diners and very few all-night Supermarkets, what we heard earlier this afternoon in the air of these woods, what we were able to smell in that same air - and then what we saw (in this video below) just before heading back - well, the only word that comes to mind is, nice.

Few things in life beat those childhood memories of playing in woods like this, especially that wonderful smell of the soil just after a fresh rain. Really nice . . . peaceful nice.

I guess when push comes to shove, I really do love living in New England.

LIVE VIDEO: Apple's new Boylston store opening

Still recovering from an amazingly eventful day yesterday at the Grand Opening of Apple's now largest store in America on Boylston Street in Boston, we noticed that some of our visitors to [: neon :] were being directed to a not-so-updated update page of ours - and hence were not getting to see these videos.

So, we decided to post them anew, immediately below.

Enjoy.

UPDATE2: Here's the first video we've been able to post-production edit. Stand-by for possibly one maybe two more.

It took a while, but we've finally combined the three longest/largest video files we took for the afternoon in the video immediately below and these are the most energized. You'll see the employees doing their own rally on the spiral staircase and then running out of the store, in formation, onto the sidewalk, across Boylston and down Fairfield, high-fiving the customers waiting to get in, only to eventually re-enter the store through the back entrance. Then you'll see the first customers on line be let into the store in groups of about twenty, each cheering, arms raised and actually running into the store. You decide how cool or how hokey this customer and employee Pep Rally really was in the end, but one thing you cannot question is the spirit and absolute attention to detail Apple is known to have.

Anyway, major kudos to the good people at Apple P.R., all consummate professionals and despite the crowds and the pressure, couldn't have been nicer to us. And lastly, a special shout to Ms. "Burberry" with Chanel glasses and a Gucci handbag from Apple corporate. Thank you for your compliments about what we wrote in [: neon :], it was a pleasure meeting you as well. Your company puts on quite a show. Quite a show.

Apple's Boston-Boylston store Grand Opening Video Update

UPDATE2: Here's the first video we've been able to post-production edit. Stand-by for possibly one maybe two more.

It took a while, but we've finally combined the three longest/largest video files we took for the afternoon in the video immediately below and these are the most energized. You'll see the employees doing their own rally on the spiral staircase and then running out of the store, in formation, onto the sidewalk, across Boylston and down Fairfield, high-fiving the customers waiting to get in, only to eventually re-enter the store through the back entrance. Then you'll see the first customers on line be let into the store in groups of about twenty, each cheering, arms raised and actually running into the store. You decide how cool or how hokey this customer and employee Pep Rally really was in the end, but one thing you cannot question is the spirit and absolute attention to detail Apple is known to have.

Anyway, major kudos to the good people at Apple P.R., all consummate professionals and despite the crowds and the pressure, couldn't have been nicer to us. And lastly, a special shout to Ms. "Burberry" with Chanel glasses and a Gucci handbag from Apple corporate. Thank you for your compliments about what we wrote in [: neon :], it was a pleasure meeting you as well. Your company puts on quite a show. Quite a show.