Bluray wow!

Just happened to glance at the blu-ray prices and wow.. There's an LG blu-ray burner at $80 @ newegg and media isn't bad either.. There are some generic 25gb media for around $1/disc and some better brand name media closer to $2/disc. (Although, you know things are bad when I'm considering RiDATA a better brand name.)

They even offered a combo price of $95.98 for the drive and the 15 pack of RiDATA discs. Sure, you could get a 2tb drive for that but you can buy more BD-R discs later on. I could use this sort of storage to back up stuff like digital camera pictures and games I've bought on steam, etc. Some of those games won't even fit on a dual-layer dvd!

Carbon Motors is coming to Connersville, IN!!!!!

They just announced it not 30 minutes ago. Carbon Motors will be moving into the old Visteon building in Connersville. They expect to have 1300 direct jobs and inspire growth of up to 10,000 jobs in the local community. I expect that it'll take some of the pressure off of other jobs locally. This is so awesome!! Good luck to anyone who applies when they start doing that. Wish me luck also.

unemployment hell

Don't listen to any unemployment person who says to wait a week before you start your unemployment filing. The week wait begins after you start your filing, not before.

Also the 1-800 help numbers are worthless. 1-800# = hung up on if I actually want to talk to someone "all operators are busy, press 1 for website, 2 for email, 3 for blahblah, 4 to disconnect.." wait 10 seconds, hang up on me.

http://www.in.gov/dwd/files/Complete_CSS_1-23-08.pdf Very handy guide for starting the filing on the website.

Concept boat

Brought to you by nerds who have seen way too much Battlestar Galactica apparently. [Link] to article about this on Gizmodo. They're talking about it having a dirty gas engine and a solar powered electric engine but we know the real story here is the design.

yard sales are fun

Found a Yamaha keyboard from the 80's at a yard sale today for $1. Sure it was dirty as heck but I brought it home and cleaned it up. Found out it wouldn't play though, no sound from either speaker or headphone jack. :( But I managed to diagnose the problem as the volume control slider not working correctly. Once I found the right traces I was able to bypass it and hear the demo song, albeit at full volume. Just need to dig out my soldering iron to make my jumper permanent and I can actually play with it then. Sometime I'll have to dig a volume control or some other potentiometer from something to replace the volume control on this.

Blockbuster leaving Richmond when lease expires

Link

A sign on a door of the store at 3300 E. Main St. informs Movie Pass and Game Pass members that their memberships will be transferred to stores in Muncie or Greenville, Ohio, on May 3.

The store's last day will be May 10, with May 3 the last day to rent videos, according to company spokesman Randy Hargrove.

"The lease was up and we made a business decision to close that location," Hargrove said.

Yet another business in Richmond closing. I have to wonder if they heard about Cinram and decided to go ahead and announce they're closing too. I've always been a fan of services like Netflix but this is a crying shame for another place of employment leaving.

EDC weighs in on cinram closing

Link

The (EDC) was dismayed to learn from news media sources of Cinram's plans for closing its plant in Richmond.

In the past, employment numbers at Cinram in Richmond have been subject to sizeable seasonable swings. From previous contact with management, the EDC knew that employment at Cinram could be more than 600 people during full production times, generally in the period from late summer and fall leading up to Christmas.

The EDC had met with local Cinram management within the past year. The company did not share any plans to close. Still, EDC had offered to work with the company to offer assistance that might make it more attractive for the company to maintain its operations in Richmond. The company did not ask for assistance.

In March this year, the EDC heard a rumor that Cinram might be downsizing or closing. EDC staff immediately began to try to make contact with Cinram's vice president and plant manager, John Finnegan. When Mr. Finnegan responded, he left a voice message saying that he could not meet with EDC until the end of April. After that, the EDC requested a specific appointment for a meeting and received no response from Mr. Finnegan.

The EDC is sorry that Cinram did not provide EDC with an opportunity to offer job retention assistance to this plant. The loss of 330 jobs will have repercussions throughout the Richmond community and we are particularly concerned for the well-being of the families that will be affected by this company's decision.

My favorite paragraph here is the 3rd one.

In March this year, the EDC heard a rumor that Cinram might be downsizing or closing. EDC staff immediately began to try to make contact with Cinram's vice president and plant manager, John Finnegan. When Mr. Finnegan responded, he left a voice message saying that he could not meet with EDC until the end of April. After that, the EDC requested a specific appointment for a meeting and received no response from Mr. Finnegan.

Thanks alot John! I suppose you can meet with the EDC in a week or two, right? Since it's not quite the end of april yet huh? Real classy there fella.