About a month ago I accepted a writing position with a new online sports network named Fan Huddle. In this position I am writing four articles per week about the Atlanta Braves as a Correspondent Blogger. Our goal is complete and utter domination of the sports world! After all, in this position I am getting paid based upon the number of visitors that Fan Huddle and my blog get. The more popular site, the more money I get. So, I need everyone to go and read my articles at least once a day, though two or three times a day would be great. My articles are featured on BravingBaseball.com.

The site only went live on October 2, so please forgive any dust you might see.

Over the last few days I have been reading a lot of blogs written by people who are currently teaching in Korea and it has really gotten me excited, overwhelmed, and terrified for the move. The uncertainty of not having a job lined up yet (we can’t apply until November), combined with the amount of stuff we have to do to pack up our life is already creating some stress.

Despite the stress though, there is nothing that I want to do more right now than move to South Korea.

Since I was a child I have always loved history and geography. I was sometimes a bit of a nerd. When I got a little bit older, my Dad worked with an organization that frequently brought international lawyers into our house while they were visiting the country. The love of geography and exposure to other cultures has manifested itself as a love of international travel and cultural experiences during my 20s.

In 2006 Julie and I made a rather hasty decision to take six weeks off of work and backpack around Europe. I would repeat that trip in a heartbeat and I think it was the best decision we made in our married lives. Since returning to America, we have both had a desire to live in another country for a year or two. While our focus had always been Europe, researching foreign teaching positions with our qualifications necessitated a focus on Asia.

Choosing South Korea as our first choice was actually very easy. While we considered China, Taiwan, and Japan, the compensation received for our work combined with the cost of living made Korea the obvious choice. We should be able to save a good chunk of money while still being able to live comfortably in South Korea.

While the decision to choose Korea was initially based on money and the availability of both modern conveniences and other foreigners, I have come to be excited to move to Korea simply because of the challenge of the culture and language. My readings have lead me to understand that Korean culture is very different from American culture and I have no doubt it was stretch me in ways that I find entirely frustrating. However, working through the frustration and learning to appreciate and understand the differences will no doubt make me a better person.

In the same way, teaching English to Korean children will allow me to share with them about our culture. They can learn more about the World and they will hopefully come to have a strong desire to learn about different cultures when they get older.

I would be lying if I said that I am not a little nervous about career prospects when we return to America. If we stay abroad for two years, I will be 29 when we come back and will have basically no career. I have faith though that this is what Julie and I are supposed to do and that God will provide answers when we return from this grand adventure.

As far as I’m concerned, 2010 can’t come soon enough!

Radio Shack has started to try and rebrand itself and create a more “neighborhood” feel by labeling their advertising with “The Shack”. While I have been calling them this name for years, it seems like a strange idea to see in an actual ad campaign.

As a former employee who has a lot of fond and not so fond memories of “The Shack”, it is sad that the above image is still the first thing that comes to mind when I see their advertising now. It’s like the Beverly Hillbillies bought a Radio Shack franchise. I would assume that the average consumer has a similar experience.

It reminds me of a similar idea that was used on a small scale in the last few months of Circuit City. They started refering to their stores as “The City” and even went as far as putting the name on the sign for a few stores. If it didn’t work for Circuit City, I’m not sure that the concept will work for Radio Shack.

I hope that this change doesn’t indicate trouble in Radio Shacks financials.

Despite how poorly I was treated while an employee, and the way I was let go, I still have a soft spot for “The Shack”. Radio Shack however should stop relying on suckers like me and actually start treating their employees better. This will lead to longer tenure and thus, a more knowledgeable sales staff. They have always been known for the knowledge of their employees, an equity that has been deteriorating for the last few years. Putting extra money into employee benefits and keeping their good employees will do more for the company than rebranding their name ever will.

Maybe they are now calling it “The Shack” because that’s all their employees can afford to live in?

]]> http://jimcheney.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/radio-shack-steals-rebranding-idea-from-circuit-city/feed/ 0 JimCheney The Shack? http://jimcheney.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/pandora-radio-the-perfect-combination-of-social-networking-and-radio/ http://jimcheney.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/pandora-radio-the-perfect-combination-of-social-networking-and-radio/#comments Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:52:37 +0000 Jim http://jimcheney.com/?p=77 Continue reading →]]> I just discovered a new site: Pandora Radio.

The site allows you to create your own Internet radio station through use of song and band comparisons. All that you have to do is put in a favorite artist and it starts your station. You can then rate songs up or down and add other artists to the station. After all while the site is supposed to learn your preferences down to styles such as “varying tempo and time signatures” and “repetitive melodic phrasing”, just to name a few.

I personally think that this is a brilliant idea. Having had previous experience being able to play whatever I wanted while I was the Programming Director at the college radio station, I can testify that it is cool to be able to listen to a huge variety of music that you like while still in a radio format.

In this day and age of social networking people seem to expect being able to customize their entertainment experience. Pandora allows this and gives you the power of social networking.

My first created station (based off of the artists Five Iron Frenzy, MxPx, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes) can be shared with other users to the site looking for similar music. I can also create a station to give to someone. It’s like a modern version of the mix tape.

Pretty cool if you ask me.

The wifey and I attended a sold out match of the World Football Challenge in Baltimore on Friday. For those of you who aren’t aware, this wasn’t stupid American Football match, this was a real football (soccer) game.

It was between AC Milan (Italy) and Chelsea (England), two of the best teams in the World. Chelsea won the game 2-1 in a very exciting match. The crowd of 71,000+ was crazy and the soccer was amazing.

As someone who has always enjoyed soccer since the 1994 World Cup, it was a neat opportunity to see such quality soccer in person. I have always wanted to go to Europe and see a top tier game. I never dreamed we would have such a match in my own backyard.

The real question is can soccer ever become a popular sport in America? After all, while we have the MLS, we don’t have one of the better leagues in the world. This is in stark contrast to two other major world sports: baseball and basketball. There is no disputing that the USA has the best league in the world for each sport. With such world-class caliber players in the country, it is not difficult to get excited about these sports.

The sell-out crowd in Baltimore proves that there is a market for the sport in America. If the USA can continue to build a league that can compete with the best in the world, and the US national team goes far in the 2010 World Cup, I think that soccer can finally become a major American sport.

While this book will not get me fluent, I am hoping to learn some introductory words and jump start my interest in learning. Korean is supposed to be one of the two or 3 most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn, so it will be interesting to see how quickly I can pick it up. Wish me luck.

I have decided to take some time out of my not so busy life and write a few articles for the open-source sports site Bleacher Report.  I’ve written 3 articles so far, check them out here

Cellular Technology sure has come a long way in the 25 years since the FCC issued the first license for a mobile phone.  In the 1989 Radio Shack catalog they feature a new model mobile phone that only weighed 28 ounces and cost a miniscule $1500.  It would have made Zack Morris proud.  Little could we have imagined then that 20 years later 85% of Americans would have a phone small enough to fit in their pocket.  The question though, in the age of iPhones and bluetooth, is where do we go from here?  While researching calling options for my likely move to South Korea in early 2010 I stumbled upon an intriguing calling option through Skype.  For those of you who don’t know, Skype is an Internet based calling company that allows you to talk to other Skype users around the World for free through video, audio, or text messages using a computer or portable Wi-Fi device, like an iPod Touch.  If you want to talk to someone who isn’t on Skype, all you have to do is pay $2.95 a month and you can call from the US to any phone number in the US for free.  Considering the cheapest unlimited nation-wide calling plan starts at $49.99 a month, the savings potential is obvious.  In my opinion the only thing holding back the usefulness of Skype is the availability of wireless Internet.  After all, while many people have wireless internet at home and work, it is still not widely available while walking down the street or traveling.  

There are however 2 trends that are making me think that nationwide high-speed Internet may be possible in the next several years.  First, several large airlines, such as Delta and American, have started to equip their planes with Wi-Fi capability.  If a plane can be constructed with Wi-Fi, then why can’t a car?  It’s not to hard to imagine a time in the not too distant future when most new cars are sold with optional Wi-Fi, just as they are with GPS upgrades today.  This could give you the ability to drive cross country while your passengers surf the Internet.

Secondly, we have the advent of city-wide Wi-Fi that is available now in a handful of cities.  This technology essentially works the same as the wireless Internet you would get through your cell-phone, but is generally faster and can be used on any number of devices.  One day soon we will mostly likely pay our monthly Internet bill in exchange for a network password instead of a modem and an assortment of cables.

Ultimately this could spell the end of the current cellular phone business model of subsidized phones, contracts, and high monthly rate plans.  After all, why would you pay for Internet and a phone bill when you could simply pay for the Internet and call everyone for free?  It will be interesting to see who adapts and who is relegated to electronic purgatory.  Already companies such as Sprint and AT&T seem to be focusing more of their advertising touting their Internet speeds than there cellular network.  Realistically though, it is only a matter of time before a company like Skype can fully take advantage of the accessibility of high-speed Internet and can make our World that much smaller.