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Issue 1, January 26 2007
INTRODUCTION
Thank you kindly for subscribing to the GregSays Newsletter. What you see now may not be what you see all the time. It may get smaller, it may get bigger. The internet is a wonderful tool and incredible opportunity for learning and the sharing of information. As that happens, I may alter and tweak the newsletter from time to time. Of course, I am always open for your suggestions and comments. Don't reply to this email, however...because it's a machine who doesn't have the caring attitude that I do. It does only as it's told. I may be one of the few, but I'm willing to give you a personal contact - my own email address greg@gregalan.net for you to use. It may be a risk in the age of mass penile enhancement and investment mailings, but I'll deal with the consequences later. Thanks again, now on with the stuff.
BLATANT PIMPING
In the very near future, I'll be adding sponsorships to this area of the newsletter. If you would like more information on how to become one of those, just contact me at my personal email address. Since this is the first issue, the area is left purposely blank. As you see at the top of the Newsletter, there's a couple of links there. The Home Page and Blog Site links are fairly obvious. The Special Offer link will eventually take you to interesting websites, sponsors and offers available exclusively to members of our small club. None of the links I will provide will harm your computer in any way. No downloads without your approval, no spam, no multiple popups exploding all over your computer, and no adware or spyware. I will harm my computer before I subject yours to it. As an example, today's link goes directly to my favorite browser, Mozilla's Firefox. If you don't have it and aren't using it, I highly recommend it.
I recently had the Microsoft Windows Update manager tell me I desperately needed to upgrade my Microsoft Explorer to 7.0 as I'm sure many of you did as well. I don't like it. It's clunky and slow moving...even on my new super-fast AMD 64 screamin' machine. Besides, it's a blatant rip-off of what Mozilla has been doing for years. Mozilla has a lot of great plug-ins and stuff to really make your browser kind of cool. And the Thunderbird Email Client is efficient, takes up less memory, and works very well in the spam filtering department.
BLOG LOG
This past week on the blog had these highlights/lowlights:
Police Association Scams - Every year, I get the same calls you do. Since charities are not subject to the "Do Not Call List" many of you signed up for with the government, I have an easy way to tell if they're scams. Ask for their address. It never fails. I had one guy tell me he was calling from Des Moines and pronounced the "esses" in the city name. Another gave me the same address, but when I asked what his actual address was he couldn't name a street and number.
SuperNanny To The Rescue - Did you know she was coming to Iowa? I swear, my wife and I are thinking of contacting the show because our kids are turning into little horrors. As bad as they are, I doubt we'll qualify for the show. Additionally, our super nanny's in Des Moines want to help all of us with the Sinclair/Mediacom issue. I have just as much confidence the 535 members of the US Congress will be able to solve the Iraq issue as they do this one. I personally don't miss CBS. And as an exclusive to Newsletter listeners - I'm going to admit that I don't even know who is playing in the Super Bowl this year.
Related? - A few people took my joke a little too seriously. I didn't mean that Hillary Rodman Klinton was a pig when I asked if her coming to Iowa was related to the Iowa Pork Congress. I just meant that it was time for us Iowans to get out our overalls and start pretending we're hicks again. The candidates are coming and we want to make them feel welcome. And the "pork" reference has more to do with things like the Iowa Child/Rainforest/Monkey Dome Expo than anything else. Anyone want to go in on a pool as to how soon it'll be and what candidate will first endorse/criticize the indoor rainforest?
GREGSAYS
I promised that the first issue of the Newsletter will carry my explanation for how and why I left radio. Let me just say that I AM writing a small book about the whole radio career and stuff. I'm not quite done with it yet and not sure it will ever be released, but it's just something I'm working on. Since I can't possibly write all of what I want in this kind of venue, I have published a semi-completed excerpt from my book. As you read it, it's sloppy...I'm not an author and it's really more of an outline I continue to work on in my spare time. The excerpt is available by downloading the PDF file (you'll need Adobe Acrobat to read it) from my website via THIS LINK. The book itself is the story of my radio career from beginning to end...and it may never actually be available entirely. From playing with the tape recorder as a youngster doing a bad impression of Jimmy Carter...to my decision to leave radio. In between, the stories and observations of a person with 17-years of his heart devoted to what he loved. It's not about bitterness, regret, or really anything other than my own opinion of what happened. There are facts, of course...and some might dispute my conclusions - but there it is.
I would also appreciate it if you kept it to yourself and not distribute it publicly.
IN YOUR INTEREST
I just like the sound of that subject title. I really don't know what this area of the Newsletter will be, but for now...just a simple inspiring message:
Thomas Edison had 999 failures before he got the lightbulb to work. He considered each one an "elimination of a possible solution" rather than a failure.
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