The Life of Kevin Hauge

As I have been researching and setting up all new services for my move, I’ve noticed a serious lack of thought in some of the websites out there. In particular was Frontier, a phone / internet / tv provider.

Since I am moving to a new area with a new zip code, I am in need of a new phone number. However, when trying to get pricing on the Frontier website I am constantly asked for my phone number to provide pricing? I don’t have a phone number yet, that’s what I’m trying to sign up for. What ever happened to entering your address, city or zip code to check pricing?

I ended up looking up the city online and found a random phone number for my neighborhood so I could at least get past their initial screening. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would rather see pricing online instead of calling a phone number, so having such a hindered method to view prices will surely harm their credibility (and thus number of sign-ups).

Just goes to show you how important outside input is in a website design. The programmer may have worked everything out perfectly, but unless you put yourself in the shoes of every type of visitor, you could be losing valuable visitors.

I’ve decided to add a new category for “Gift Ideas”. This is more for my own personal tracking I guess as there are many times during the year that I think of something that would be good to add to a birthday / Christmas list … but when the time comes that people ask me, I’ve forgotten. This way I can keep track.

New keyring for my ‘06 Mustang GT

I am about a week and a half away from closing on the house, meaning I am trying to arrange for all of my new services to start up when I move in. One of the questions I’ve been fighting with is what to choose for my television service. I originally had Comcast at my townhome but was quite frustrated with their service … there were more outages with cable than everyone I talked to who had Dish.

So I have been researching the channels and packages and they both appear fairly equal … the only channel I would be missing is DIY Network as Dish Network only offers it on the highest package (and the lowest, which doesn’t make sense … but whatever). I’ve talked with family and friends about their packages and all say they are good.

To get some sort of decision going, does anyone have a suggestion either way? If you have one of them, why you would recommend it or why you wouldn’t choose it again even if it were free … etc. Suggestions are welcome.

If any of you Harry Potter fans have been one to make an evening out of the midnight first showing of a new Harry Potter film, you know exactly what I’m about to describe … utter chaos.

My girlfriend (Emily) has a tradition with her friends to go to the first showing of any new Harry Potter movie, and this year evidently it was my turn to be initiated into the cycle. Given that I haven’t read any of the books, I wouldn’t say I’m a die-hard Potter fan … though I have seen all the movies (mostly on DVD) and will admit they are decent. Evidently everyone else at the packed theater that night, however, was a die-hard Potter fan.

Boys young and old were walking around in their cloaks, wearing their round glasses and waving around sticks (evidently they were “wands”). Girls were dressed either in similar cloaks as the boys or sporting the uniform of the school (white shirt, maroon and gold tie and skirt) … but in a sluttier version. Any other location (like bars on Halloween) I would be all for outfits like those on a girl in her 20’s … but these are girls in their tweens (10-13)! Aside from the fact that no girl in the movies has an outfit quite like that … how can parents let their girls go out in public like that? Even worse … there were plenty there with their parents!! Did you not see what she was wearing when she hopped in the back of your mini-van?

Obviously this is starting to show my age … and that I’m probably transforming into “dad” mode instead of “guy” mode. Even though I’m years away from being a father (and many years from a tween-age daughter), it still boggles my mind what some parents allow with their children these days.

Even more showing of my age is that I just can’t stand being up till the wee hours of the morning anymore. The movie started 20 minutes late, thus not ending until nearly 3am. Add onto that the chaos that is trying to drive out of a jammed parking lot with hundreds of other vehicles and a 30 minute drive home … and I may need to be “busy” for the next Harry Potter opening night.

My alma mater, MSUM (then called Moorhead State University) is going 100% smoke-free on January 1st, 2008. They will be banning smoking, tobacco use and tobacco sales on all university property. Evidently MSUM is among the first major universities in the country to officially go smoke free.

According to the university:

34% of MSUM students and 12% of MSUM employees are tobacco users; 13% of MSUM students and 7% of MSUM employees are “regular users” of tobacco.

And when asked if this change would affect enrollment, a survey of prospective students showed that (if anything) it would influence them to be more likely to attend if the campus was smoke-free:

• 58% (33) - It would not influence their decision in any way
• 39% (22) - Yes, I would be more likely to attend
• 4% (2) - Yes, I would be less likely to attend

Should be interesting to see if these numbers hold true or not.