As readers will be aware, in June 2009, West Midlands Police appointed a new Chief Constable, Chris Sims.

Since then, the force has been going through stages of development to deliver the new Chief’s vision of an even more effective service to the communities within the West Midlands area.

Solihull Operational Command Unit, of which Castle Bromwich is a community/neighbourhood, is part of that area. The changes, due to come into effect in April 2010, will see more neighbourhood officers on the Neighbourhood Policing Teams, leading to increased coverage between the hours of 08:00 hours and midnight/01:00 hours, daily, seven days a week. These dedicated teams will, of course, continue to be supported by uniform mobile support teams, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Under the new system, which has a working title of Programme Paragon, the current Operational Command Units in the force area, will be redesigned into Local Policing Units. In Birmingham, this has seen a change in boundaries. In Solihull, we are fortunate enough to still be contained within the boundary of the Metropolitan Borough.

It has not yet been decided who your sergeant and officers will be in Castle Bromwich from April 2010. It is likely, but not certain, that some or all of the existing staff may be retained in order to provide an element of consistency in contacts and knowledge of the area. What is certain is that the Meriden constituency, which includes Castle Bromwich, will be led by Inspector Keith Portman, with the current Inspector, Dave Rischmiller, who has led the Northern Policing Teams for the last three years, taking up a role in charge of Licensing.

Inspector Portman is currently the Local Partnerships Officer and brings the wealth of knowledge from that role to his new post. I am sure he will introduce himself more formally to the constituency on his arrival.

Deceivers and CON-tractors, always look wonderful in the beginning, because they have big plans for spending your money.  The con generally begins with the assurance that they above anyone else will give the best service at a low price.  The paperwork looks wondeful, these guys come prepared with professional designed web sites, contracts, professional certifications and memberships, pamphlets, brochures, reference letters, insurance documents, neat uniforms imprinted with their business logo and the Better Business Bureau seal of approval.  The package is tight, slick and totally aimed at geting thousands of your dollars into their wallets and purses.  Once they get your name on the contract, then real fun and games begin for them, not you.  It will be your nightmare for years.

EMER-X
Mr. Dave Michal, owner
Mr. Jeff Jones, manager
450 Satellite Blvd, Suite F
Suwanee, GA  30024
Phone: 770-932-8300

I hired a very large well known National company to install two casement windows in my den.  Being very naive, I had no idea that this major corporation would use inexperienced sub-contractors.  Their subcontractor’s negligence and ignorance resulted in my home being invaded with water inside the windows and through the sheetrock. The water trapped inside the wall produced a wonderful habitat for mold, the bad and dangerous kind of mold to thrive.  Once, I discovered that my insurance company Allstate did not cover claims against a contractor and mold damage, I consulted with an attorney.  I could not locate the subcontractor so I filed a claim with the company’s Home Improvement Repair and Services division.   After months of inspections and reports, I finally got to the point of hiring a contractor to repair the home.  The attorney I consulted recommended EMER-X.  I called EMER-X and three other mold and renovation specialist.  Based solely on the attorney recommendation in addition to their slick packaging, I hired EMER-X for the renovation project.  The following letter explains the rest of the story with these CON-tractors.

November 19, 2004

Ms. Jennifer Warren
Dispute Resolution Manager
BBB Metro Atlanta
503 Oak Place #590
Atlanta, GA 30349

Dear Ms. Warren:

I am responding to your request of November 17, 2004 “to provide additional documentation to substantiate your claim.” My responses refer in part to Mr. Jeff Jones, (alias “Jeff Charles”) letter of November 4, 2004.

Mr. Terry Powell worked with me as the project manager from November 2003 to February 2004. Powell resigned from the staff of Emer-X shortly after my project began. Powell and I had several conversations about the lawn, the inventory, packing, biohazard gear and my car in the driveway. These conversations were in person, on the phone or by e-mail (E-mails enclosed). Jones did not hear these conversations.

I owned a 1989 Buick Regal Limited. My Allstate agent is Mr. Ty Crowe. Allstate recommended that since the car was not being driven to leave the car in the driveway. The car tag and insurance expired in 2004. The car had insurance and a current tag in place when Emer-X began the project in 2003. This was not a wrecked or abandoned junk vehicle because I listed and advertised the car for sale.

Powell and I discussed moving the car to the side of the house. This plan would not work because the yard is sloped and we were concerned that placing the car on a slope would cause problems when I tried to move the car. Therefore both of us agreed to leave the car in place for the time being. His workers would only use a small portion of the yard. The Saint Thomas Moore Catholic charity picked up the vehicle as a good will donation. Therefore the driveway was not blocked during the entire project.

I argue that this project did not require the total destruction of the entire lawn (Photos enclosed). The pictures of November 2003 show that I had a weed free fescue green lawn and room in the driveway for placement of a construction Dumpster. The pictures of August 2004 show that Emer-X never placed a construction Dumpster in the driveway or on the street. Instead their workers for weeks piled all the construction trash on the lawn. This debris remained in the yard for months. In addition paint wastes was dumped around the shrubbery in the front yard.

Emer-X removed all the carpets and rugs from the house. (The wood floors were protected for over 35 years with padded carpet and large area rugs). Their workers walked on the bare hard wood floors before and after cleaning the house of mold. The foot traffic on the floors severely marred the wood grain. The floors received damages far beyond normal wear and tear.

Powell suggested that I address the issue of the lawn and other damages with Dave Michal and Li****y M***al Insurance Company (The insurance company responsible for paying the claim). Li****y M***al’s agent W****ce B******u refused to pay for any damages caused by Emer-X. His position is that Emer-X could have prevented or reduced the amount of damages if they had taken certain protective measures during the project repairs. Dave Michal the owner of Emer-X agrees that his company did many things that negatively impacted my home. However he does not want to pay to repair any damages and does not want me to file a claim with Emer-X’s insurance company. Therefore he is withholding the correct name of Emer-X’s insurance carrier. Emer-X does not have insurance with St. Paul Travelers Insurance.

Although the focus of the BBB complaint does not pertain to project delays, I will address Jones dishonest responses in the following paragraphs. The inventory project began with Terry Powell. Jones did not hear these conversations and was not involved in the work that I did with Powell.

Powell wanted me to enter the house during the inventory and packing to remove all items of value. He did not want the company held responsible for storing valuables (Inventory agreement enclosed). I agreed to do this. Powell told me that I needed to wear biohazard protective gear, i.e., a facemask, gloves and coveralls. I do not work in the industry of cleaning biohazard wastes and this made it very difficult for Powell and me to locate not only the companies that sold to the public but also a physician who gave face mask respiratory tests. I believe it took over one month to set locate the professionals, get the appointments and finalized the mask testing. I caused none of these delays.

It was not necessary for me to work with the crew of Emer-X. Powell and I had a plan whereby he would leave things in the dining room for me to sort. Emer-X’s workers were not needed in the house during this project. In our plan, I would place the things I wanted to keep on a shelf in the dining room and the things I did not want to keep I placed in the living room. Powell suggested that it would be better to sort out in the beginning all the items that I wanted to keep from the items that I did not need to keep. This would have prevented the storage of unnecessary household goods and valuables.

I entered my house wearing biohazard gear, about six times for a total of 12 hours. On my last visit I had about five boxes out of 20 left to sort in the dining room. On the last day that I scheduled to come by and complete the inventory sorting, I surprisingly found that my entire house had been packed up and moved out. When the Emer-X workers moved all the contents to the warehouse, they removed the discard/contaminated contents and the contents that I wanted cleaned and retained. (They neglected removing the mold contaminated cookware from inside the gas range.)

Sorting through the contents before storage would have reduced the number of boxes placed in the warehouse. After two weeks of trying to finish the project inside my house Powell admitted to me that he did not know which boxes workers removed out of the dining room. In February 2004 Powell said that I could finish the project inside the warehouse but I should definitely not attempt to do this until they completed all the home repairs. However, in October 2004, Jones told me that I needed to make arrangements to pick up all my property from the warehouse or he would dump everything on my front yard. Also, he refused to allow me access to the warehouse so that I could complete the sorting of the discard items. I alleged they swindled to get a larger number of boxes in their warehouse for the purposes charging more money for storage and packing fees.

Jones is lying in insisting that I delayed the project. I did not live in my home during the project. I stayed with my mother and sister and slept on a living room lounge chair. I lived out of two suitcases of clothes because all my clothes, furniture, cookware, papers, books, etc were in a warehouse.

I recorded almost every phone call made back and forth to S***s and Li****y M***al from July 2003 to the present. From the beginning, I pushed in every way possible to get the project finished, so that I could get back into my house before Christmas 2003. Nonetheless, once Emer-X began the project Jones and Michal never gave Li****y M***al or me a firm completion date.

In view of the urgency on my part of finish the work as quickly as possible, it is inconceivable that planing a bathroom project stopped workers from installing two windows in the den and finishing the basement electrical repairs. The bathroom, den and basement are separate and distinct rooms.

Other damages Jones failed to address or addressed falsely: In using my toilet without permission, Emer-X workers broke the interior parts of the toilet. The toilet usage and leakage produced a very high water bill (Water bill enclosed). Their workers broke a piece of decorative wood off the dining room table. They did not fix the table but left the broken piece on the floor under the table. Their workers left a large amount mold contaminated and foul smelling cookware inside my range. They also left a lot of hardware off the windows, that Liberty Mutual paid them to install in the den.

I filed a complaint with the BBB because Michal and Jones gave wrong information about Emer-X’s insurance coverage with St. Paul Travelers. The contract was based on their documentation and verbal statements to me that Emer-X maintained insurance coverage against damages (Letter from St. Paul Travelers enclosed). In addition that they would minimize and correct all resultant and incidental damages (Powell’s 12/02/03 e-mail).

Jones, alias Charles, provided a highly dishonest response to the complaint letters. He failed to address the issue about insurance coverage past and present and he failed to address issues related to correcting the damages that I reported.

In all fairness to all homeowners do not list or report Emer-X as a company in good standing with the Better Business Bureau. Any company that misleads its customers about their name of their insurance carrier should not have a BBB seal of approval. Emer-X’s workers are very destructive and careless to a homeowner’s property; and their project managers operate deceitfully and heartless with injured claimants

Sincerely yours,

An educated consumer is the best defensive weapon against fly by night CON-tractors, insurance companies and large corporations.  My purpose for placing this information on the Internet is to help someone avoid the same traps.  The partial or totally loss of a home represents a major traumatic episode and their are piles of deceptive home remodeling scam artists that wait for the right opportunity to come in and take all they can get.  It is not about working hard but working smart.

Be prepared from the start to go all the way to court with liens against their property, bank accounts and salaries.  Before any contract is signed, spend the extra $200 to get a full background check, including their social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank accounts, properties.  Find out whose name actually owns the business. If they provide an insurance document, don’t trust their paperwork.  Call the insurance company, ask for the insurance policy numbers and check if their insurance company and your insurance company will allow claims against damages and accidents.

Most likely 30% to 50% of the time we will use the same skilled contractors that came recommended by parents, neighbors, co-workers, friend or others contractors. The majority of the crappy contractors on this Blog came from recommendations.  I hired a home remodeling contractor simply based on the word of mouth recommendation of a contractor what has done superior work for me and my family for 25 years.  However the guy I hired ended being a total nitwit for working with remodeling homes.

Due to the EMER-X fiasco, I learned to become my own project manager. I now verify all work and materials front and back.  If the saw that he started going in the wrong direction on a project, I quickly halted the work and hired another contractor.  I paid the money I owed him to the new contractor.  Of course he did not like it. Nonetheless, it saved my house from burning down from his inept and improper electrical wiring of my kitchen.  That’s all for now-Stay tuned to more posts for the rest of the story.

COMPLAINT ACTIVITY REPORT  Case # 20015537  
Better Business Bureau, Inc.
 Business Info:
 Paragon Construction Company
 800 Metropolitan Pkwy SW
Atlanta, GA  30310-2802
 404 755-2667

For the readers information, this complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau, I deleted my name, address and phone number.  Other than minor line formating I did not edit or revised any words from the complaint.  Please refer to the BBB Case # to get the full unedited complaint.  Paragon Construction Company, at one time,  ranked very high on the Service Magic refered list of general contractors and therefore I hired the company to repair a very rotten exterior window sill.  Since, their subcontractors did an excellent job with this small project, I thought it would be a good idea to continue to use them.  The next three projects, the screened porch, the exterior water line and finally the home renovations became struggles between contractor and homeowner, because I had to continually fight contractor to use specific building materials for each project.  The ceiling accident became a blessing in disquise for us, because this incident led to the dismissal of the Paragon and the saving of our home. 

I contacted “Service Magicians” several times to get the name, address and phone number of Paragon’s insurance company.  I wanted to file a claim for the damages caused by the insulation spillage on our furniture and clothes.  I learned after several phone calls to various agents, that Service Magic did not have on file the name of Paragon Construction Company’s insurance carrier.  I found this news somewhat strange because Service Magic placed an ad for Paragon on their web site and their contractor directory, along with customer ratings, their insurance coverage amount and the review I submitted regarding the exterior window sill project.   

 Consumer’s Original Complaint :

I hired Paragon Construction Company to do several remodeling projects.  My home was built in 1946 and the pipes were very damaged and leaking heavily.  The contract Feb 13, 2006, was to replace the damaged exterior (galvanized) supply water line with a copper pipe from the water meter to house and to install a pressure valve on the interior line.  Total cost paid: $875.00.   I hired Paragon again December 2006 in another plumbing project to install a laundry room in my basement, to replace the interior galvanized pipes with copper pipes and to place insulation in my attic.  In the process of doing this project the Paragon subcontractor discovered that I had a galvanized pipe on the exterior supply line. No copper pipes were seen on the interior supply line up to the house.  The copper pipe began five feet from the house.  This same subcontractor in the process of cleaning my attic of loose insulation, placed bags of insulation on the attic floor and the insulation dropped through the ceiling onto my bedroom and hallways.  When he failed to clean up the insulation and delayed repairing my damaged ceiling, I requested that he not return to my home.  I hired another contractor to complete the plumbing project and the attic project.  The new contractor reported that very little work had been completed toward replacing the interior galvanized pipes.  In addition several things were done incorrectly.  I want Paragon to refund the 50% deposit of $1650.00 for the plumbing work and $391.00 for the removal of the insulation.  I called and emailed the owner several times about these issues.  He does not believe that he did anything wrong and believes that I owe him more money.      

SETTLEMENT: Refund

SETTLEMENT EXPLANATION:

I want a refund of the attic cleaning and the basement plumbing repairs.  I needed to hire another contractor to repair and correct the work of Paragon Construction.  Mr. James never offered to correct or repair the damages and never came to my house to see the problems.  I am seeking a refund of $2,041.00.

PRODUCT: plumbing home repairs

Consumer’s Desired Resolution:

BBB Processing

03/23/2007                jc           BBB        Case Received by BBB

03/26/2007                jc           BBB        Case Reviewed by BBB

03/26/2007                Otto      EMAIL     Send Acknowledgement to Consumer

03/26/2007                Otto      MAIL       Notify Business of Dispute

04/10/2007                WEB      BBB        RECEIVE BUSINESS RESPONSE : Contact Name and Title: W. L. James, Owner  Contact Phone: 404-771-4578   Contact Email: paragon1945@aol.com

Paragon Cnstruction entered into a contract with ———- to replace a leaking galvanized water line from the meter to the house. The term from the meter to the house was used as ameans of designaing which line was to be replaced as opposed to a specific point to point description.  When it was mentioned that the line did not go into the foundation wall, I pointed out that the new line must be connected to the existing line at a connection, which was approximately TWO FEET from the foundation wall not FIVE FEET.  M——– indicated that —- wanted the existing loose insulation removed before new batts were installed. In the process of removing the loose fill insulation, a hole was somehow made in the ceiling of the bedroom.A special person was engaged to remove all of the bedding and have it laundered and thorughly vacuum the space which appeared to be all that could be reasonably done.  M. ——–complained that some insulation had gotten into — closet and — JEWELRY BOX which had not been removed UNBELIEVABLE!  — states that the sub “delayed” repairing —ceiling which is not true. The hole was patched promptly but the finishing process requires 3 coats with time for each coat to dry between coats. This was explained to —but — seemed determined to make this a major problem along with anything else that — could come up with.  M——- had spent a good deal of time on the internet looking for exotic, unusual items for —house and expected the Subcontractor to go and get these items, somme of which were in a different city. When the Sub stated that he would have to charge — for this service, — became angry which I believe prompted — to dismiss him.We had done work for M—— before which involved re-screening a porch and painting the framework. Upon completion —- was displeased because the 60 year old framework, although it had been scraped before painting, — said it did not look like brand new wood. We therefore sanded.  EACH PIECE of the framework, primed and repainted it at no additional cost to — although this would be considered to be restoration as opposed to repair work. I believe that this was a mistake as it led — to believe that any demands that — made would be satisfied without question.   We try diligently to make our customers happy and I believe that our references show that we have done a pretty good job over the years (since 1969).  M—— indicated to me that —dismissed the Sub because he was not rspectful enough.When I asked —to be specific, —mentiooned the conversation about going to pick up the item that was mentioned previously. Too,— said that she should have been called at work and informed about the mishap with the ceiling. I did not agree with that position.I cannot imagine what could be accomplished by doing so. Finally, I think that M. ——— is just looking for a way to avoid paying and attempting to extort money from Paragon.    

04/11/2007                jc           EMAIL     Forward Business response to Consumer

04/12/2007                WEB      BBB        CONSUMER REBUTTAL TO BUSINESS RESPONSE : (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

The information given by Paragon regarding the exterior plumbing was not given to me until I wrote this complaint.   I paid Paragon to replace the entire line from meter to house and to install a pressure value on the the new copper line.  I found out from another plumber that no pressure line had been installed and several feet of old plumbing was still in place.  Paragon failed to disclosed this information to me after they completed the work.                       I told Mr. James of Paragon that if he could not do insulation then I would hire an insulation specialist to handle the job.  He said that Paragon did insulation. In fact, he said that his company could do everything that we needed done in the house. However, James only wanted us to buy his products. We asked for energy efficient, top quality, environmentally safe, and non toxic building materials.  We were willing to pay more money for these products as well as purchasing the products ourselves.  I have chronic asthma and allergies and will not place materials in the house that will cause allergic reactions.  The insulation was not correctly removed.  The worker placed loose fiberglass insulation in plastic construction bags, then he placed these bags on the attic floor and when the ceiling broke, all the insulation fell into my bedroom and hallway. The ceiling break is not a hole, it is a large section, measuring, approx. 6 feet by 5 feet across.  Since, the closet doors and dresser drawers were fully opened, the fiberglass dispersed on everything. Instead of stopping the work, they continued and  removed the fiberglass insulation by carrying these packed bags through my home.   I discovered the accident in the evening after returning from work.  The worker who caused the ceiling damages, told me this “You have to break a few eggs to make a cake.” I had to discard the entire bedding set, which was newly purchased. Plus, everything in the bedroom had to be washed twice.  The dresser was removed from the room and the jewerly box which was on top of the dresser is ruined. The jewerly inside the jewerly box is full of fiberglass insulation. Days after the accident I continued to find insulation: on the clothes hanging inside the hall closet, the closet floors and on clothes behind the bedroom door.  I have pictures of the damages.  Very important to note that, Mr. James did not see the damages that he is trying to address, so he does not have any first hand knowledge of the problems.  He is getting all his information from the subcontractor who damaged the ceiling.  I hired Paragon to renovate my home.  Their first project was to set up a basement laundry room, to replace the galvinized interior pipes with copper pipes and to insulate the attic space with Green non toxic building materials..  I dismissed Paragon because they failed to correct the damages caused by the ceiling breakage and they incorrectly and unsafely removed fiberglass insulation from my ceiling. I experienced the subcontractor as very disrespectful and demeaning.  Paragon started the laundry room but they stopped when I dismissed the subcontractor. Therefore, I paid them for plumbing work that they did not complete or attempt to complete.  The laundry room plumbing was wrongfully done, therefore, I not only had to pay another plumber more money to finish the work but also to correct Paragons mistakes.  My current contractor prepared an itemized statement of the work that he corrected on the laundry room. I also have pictures of the insulation damages.  The bedroom and hallway ceilings are not repaired.  Fiberglass is a serious health problem for the lungs and skin.  Therefore extreme care should have been used when removing it from an attic space. Paragon owes me considerable money and they are totally untruthful to suggest that they gave me any honest workmanship.  I hold Paragon responsible for hiring unsupervised and bad subcontractors.  I am asking for a considerable financial settlement.  Please do not list this business on the BBB web pages.  They are doing very poor quality work right now.  

04/13/2007                jc           MAIL       Manually Forward Consumer Rebuttal to Business

04/25/2007                OttO     BBB        No Response from Business re: Consumer Rebuttal

04/27/2007                kh          BBB        Bureau judged complaint to be closed UNRESOLVED

04/27/2007                Otto      EMAIL     Inform Consumer – Case Closed UNRESOLVED

04/27/2007                Otto      MAIL       Inform Business – Case Closed UNRESOLVED

04/27/2007                Otto      BBB        Case Closed UNRESOLVED

05/05/2007                jw          BBB        ReOpen the Complaint

05/05/2007                jw          BBB        RECEIVED BUSINESS’ ADDITIONAL RESPONSE : Paragon Construction Company,800 Metropolitan Parkway S.W., Atlanta, Georgia  30310, Phone  404-755-2667,   Fax  404-755-9865

                                M. ——   I have not responded to your communications up to this point because I wanted to be sure that my response was nor influenced by my emotions regarding this entire project.   I should have known better than to undertake another project for you after the scenario regarding the wood at he porch, which incidentally was clearly unreasonable. (Your insisting that the wood be sanded down to a completely smooth bare surface.) I should have anticipated other unreasonable  expectations and concluded that you are just one of those people  that is looking for something about which to complain in order to avoid payment.  Let us start with the water line from the meter to the house.  In order to connect a copper line to a galvanized line an adapter is used which has to be attached to a threaded connection.  The nearest connection to the foundation wall was the one to which it was attached.  Where the figure “five feet” came from, I have no idea. It was, in fact,   much closer to TWO FEET.  This could be easily seen where the hole was dug to make the connection.  The reason that the hole was dug was so that Mickens could remove the galvanized and connect the new copper line inside to the to the copper line from the meter. this, in fact, would have been done immediately had you not elected to banish Mickens from the premises.  In regard to the insulation incident.  Accidents do sometimes happen. (You may have even had one at some point) This is especially true in construction and remodeling. To be walking on ceiling joists while moving around and removing loose fill insulation is difficult and quite tricky.  You  stated that you thought that we should be accomplished at this task.  Why?  In my 37 years in this business, this is the first time that we have done this in an occupied house.  Contrary to your statement that the Subcontractor did not clean up the insulation that fell from the ceiling, he went to some great lengths to restore you to your original state, including removing and laundering your bedding, completely vacuuming the entire room, etc.  He also set about to repair the ceiling where it was damaged.  Drywall repair is usually done in three steps, (1) hang and tape, (2) first mud coat  (3) finish coat; all with an interval of usually a day between each stage for drying,. So you can see that this is not something that could be done in fifteen or twenty minutes, as you apparently expected.  I have no idea why or how insulation fibers could have gotten into your jewelry box or your closet, or what could be done about it. I strongly suspect that some, if not most, of your reaction to the insulation fibers is psychosomatic, as I cannot see how there could still be fibers in the bedding after being laundered and the entire premises being vacuumed.  At any rate, I informed you at the time that we would do whatever was reasonable to make you happy. (Remember what we did vis-à-vis your porch?)  You may remember that you also charged us $150 for additional dry cleaning expense to which we agreed.  We considered this to be accord and satisfaction in regard to insulation cleanup.  You mentioned that Mr. Mickens had installed some pipes in the wrong location. I cannot comment on that as I did not see them in relation to the laundry room layout.  If that was indeed the case, then it would have been his responsibility to simply reroute them to the correct location.  No problem.   You stated that you dismissed the Subcontractor because he was extremely rude and disrespectful. Having worked with Mr. Mickens for a number of years, I find this hard to believe as this seems to be completely out of character.  Since the contract was with me, and not Mr. Mickens, it would appear that the appropriate course of action would have been to bring this matter to my attention, which was not done until after the fact.  I would like to have known the specifics of this incident at the time of occurrence from your point of view.  According to Mr. Mickens, he believes that you were angry and upset because he would not agree to go out to Stone Mountain to pick up a sink that you wanted unless he was  compensated for doing so.   As I pointed out to you at the outset, that without knowing what, where and when you might order items found on the Internet, we could not be responsible for the  purchase  and/or pick-up and delivery of same without a charge on a per item basis. This is what would be, to use your word, “fair”.   To your point about “fraud”: I do not believe that any reasonable person who understands the situation would concur with your assessment.                  We work diligently to satisfy all of our customer to the fullest extent that is reasonably possible. (Again, remember your porch?) Apparently we have done a pretty good job.  As testament to that fact, we have a very high customer rating; about 40% of our business is repeat business from previous customers:  (That includes YOU); numerous letters of recommendation from individuals, businesses and organizations, and a generally good reputation in the industry.  Finally, I firmly believe in doing unto others as I would have them do unto me.  In fact, I often try to go above and beyond the call of duty.  I am always unhappy when something does not go as I would like.  But those things will happen if one lives long enough.  You know the adage, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray”.  In short, had you not taken it upon yourself to summarily terminate the project (without adequate cause, I might add), I have no doubt that it could have been completed to even your satisfaction, unless of course you decided that you simply would not, under any circumstances, be satisfied,  for the purpose of attempted extortion, which clearly seems to be the case.  I regret that you would not give us the opportunity to please you, as we did with the porch.                     Willis James

05/05/2007                jw          EMAIL     Send Business’ Rebuttal Response to Consumer

05/09/2007                WEB      BBB        CONSUMER SUBSEQUENT RESPONSE : (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

                                I want to state for the record that nothing is made up or contrived so that I may withhold payment.  I do not owe Paragon Construction any money on my contract.  I hired another plumber contractor after I discharged Mr. Mickens.  This man reported to me that several things were incorrectly done in the basement laundry plumbing and that apparently the person who did the work before him did not know what he was doing.  In addition the work that Mr. Mickens should have completed had not been done at all.  I have a copy of the contract which lists what the plumber had to do to correct Mr. Micken’s faulty work.  Mr. Mickens and his sons broke the attic ceiling and spilled old loose pink fiberglass insulation into my home.  It would have been very easy to view the insulation fibers on my clothes, in the closets and in the other areas, if Mr. James had visted my home. My house was not completely cleaned of the loose insulation that fell from the ceiling when the attic sheet rock broke.  I have photographs of the insulation wastes in my home and I still have the uncleaned jewerly box for him to view.  I can not wear the jewerly. I told Mr. Mickens and showed him the areas that were not cleaned of the insulation and he never once voiced any intent to clean these areas.   Paragon never offered to complete the repairs to my ceiling or to send other professionals to my home to finish cleaning the insulation from my clothes, floors and other belongings.  I did pay another plumber to correct Mr. Mickens mistakes in the laundry room.  I will need to pay several other specialists to do the cleaning work and to repair my ceiling.  Since a large amount of insulation fell on top of my bedding, I had to replace the bedding set with a new one.  I did not feel in any way obligated to continue employing a  subcontractor who worked with extreme neglience and disrepectfullness.  In my experience, responsible business owners do not argue with homeowners about damages caused by their workers.  Mr. James agrees that Mr. Mickens broke the ceiling however, he does not feel in any way responsible to pay to correct the damages. Mr. James neglected to correct his written contract regarding the exterior plumbing.  As such he mislead me to believe that I had an entirely  new copper line from street to the house and that he placed a water pressure value on the interior of the home. Mr. James argues that I made things up in order to get money out of his company.  Due to the fact, that I have paid and will pay other contractors thousands of dollars to complete my home renovation, it is total false the assume that I am attempting to defraud Mr. James.  Mr. James has cheated me and I expect him to pay me as soon as possible the full amount that I am seeking in damages.  I am also requesting that the BBB remove Paragon Construction from their web site as a BBB company of reference.

05/18/2007                jw          MAIL       Forward Consumer Rebuttal to Business

06/01/2007                OttO     BBB        No Response from Business re: Consumer Rebuttal

06/07/2007                jc           BBB        Bureau Judged Case AJR

06/07/2007                Otto      EMAIL     Inform Consumer – Case ADMINISTRATIVELY CLOSED

06/07/2007                Otto      MAIL       Inform Business – Case ADMINISTRATIVELY CLOSED

A while back, I posted an article on some free tools that you can use to create hard disk images. Well, although that article only generated a couple comments in feedback, I was most surprised when a representative from Paragon Software Group sent an e-mail to inform me of the solutions their company offers. To be honest, I have only come across Paragon through software recommendations in tech support forums, but was perhaps a bit absent-minded to not include their applications in the list. From what I have heard, their products come highly recommended. As a matter of fact, in addition to having commercial products, they also give away a couple of free tools.

Paragon Backup and Recovery Free Edition is a feature-rich application that comes at no cost to you! You can perform scheduled complete or differential backups, save to bootable external media for later recovery and a whole lot more. If you are paranoid about losing your data or just prefer to be proactive when it comes to preserving your important files, then you should definitely give Paragon Backup and Recovery Free Edition a try. While browsing their website, it is worth checking out the other free tools that are available such as Partition Manager Free Edition, Rescue Kit Express and CDROM Emulator. ExtBrowser looks interesting if you want to access Ext2/3-formatted Linux partitions from Windows, but note that Ext4 does not seem to be supported.

Limited-time Giveaway

Well, it looks like there might be another piece of free software that will show up on the list. Unfortunately, however, this software will only be freely available for a limited time. From Friday, January 29th until Sunday, January 31st, 2010, Paragon will be giving away their Backup and Recovery Compact Edition for free! This program, which normally sells for US$39.95, offers a number of professional recovery tools and is a good alternative to the Backup and Recovery Suite if you only require the basic features. Ensure that you revisit Paragon’s freeware page during the giveaway in order to grab your copy of Backup and Recovery Compact Edition and start securing your valuable data.

The history of recorded music in Chicago during the 20th century was broad and deep, traversing sonic areas both familiar and unknown.  The earliest crude recordings on Edison cylinders date back to the turn of the century and carry on through the rise of 78s, 45s and LPs cut at major studios like Universal Recording Co., RCA, and Chess by many artists who would become musical icons and household names.  But there was no shortage of smaller studios, like P.S. & Paragon, that had great recording equipment and incredible engineers like Malcolm Chisolm and Paul Serrano behind the consoles for ambitious, and lesser known but equally as talented musicians to lay down tracks at well into the ’70s and beyond.

The City of Chicago asked its Cultural Historian, Tim Samuelson, and us to create a 3 hour mix from the earliest sourced recording through 1980 – just before the rise of Chicago’s house music scene.  Below is an MP3 of our mix we presented at Millenium Park’s Audio Picnic series, it’s an aural journey of a city whose recorded output & legacy has influenced & changed the scope of the history of music around the world for centuries to come.  Enjoy!

Click here for the entire 161 MB, 60 song mp3 download and stream.

And for you first time visitors, check out some of our Chicago related albums:

033 Light: On The South Side
030 Good God! Born Again Funk
022 Brotherman: OST by the Final Solution
013 Eccentric Soul: Twinight’s Lunar Rotation
003 Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label

——————————————————————————-

Introduction – Chicago That Toddling Town

1908 – I’m Afraid To Go Home In The Dark – Billy Murray
1916 – Some Sweet Day – Marion Harris
1919 – Darktown Strutters Ball – James Reese Europe’s Hellfighters Band
1923 – Made A Monkey Out Of Me – Original Memphis Five
1924 – Night Hawk Blues – Coon-Saunders Nighthawk Orchestra
1924 – Mecca Flat Blues – Priscilla Stewart and Jimmy Blythe
1926 – Sunset Cafe Stomp – Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five
1926 – Doctor Jazz – Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers
1926 – Banjorino – Dixieland Jug Blowers
1927 – Miss Annabelle Lee – Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys
1932 – Bugle Call Rag – Mills Brothers
1932 – If You See My Savior- Thomas A. Dorsey
1937 – New Shake Em’ On Down – Big Bill Broonzy
1939 – Rural Rhythm – Hoosier Hot Shots
1944 – Little Joe From Chicago – King Cole Trio
1945 – Chicago Breakdown – Big Maceo
1947 – Ora Nelle Blues – Little Walter
1948 – I Can’t Be Satisified – Muddy Waters
1949 – Tennessee, Tennessee – Homer & Jethro with Chet Atkins
00:54:00
1952 – Red Hot, Chili Mac – The Morocco’s
1955 – Dirty Bird – The Flips
1956 – Saturn – Le Sun Ra & His Arkestra
1956 – So Long – The El Ray’s w/ Willie Dixon
1958 – You’re Breaking My Heart – The Daylighter’s
1958 – Lover’s Reunion – The Dontells
1958 – Teenagers Letter Of Promises – Juanita Rodgers
1958 – Twirl – The Vongayles
1959 – Double Trouble – Otis Rush
1960 – The Shepards – Tragic
1961 – Apache War Dance – Earl Hooker
1961 – The Opals – Hop Skip & Jump!
1961 – Ricky Allen – Cut You A Loose
1962 – Gorrila – The Ideals
1962 – Tell Her To Come On Home – Little Mack
1962 – Sadness & Madness – The Conquistadors
1964 – When I’m With My Baby – The Magnetics
1965 – I’ll Never Say Goodbye – The Vontastics
1966 – A Lover’s Reputation – Denise LaSalle
1966 – The Girl I Threw Away – The Knaves
1967 – Devastator – Stormy
1967 – Nona – Vincent Chapelle
1968 – A Portrait Of God’s Love – Cindy & The Playmates
1968 – You’re In My Mind – Graf Zeppelin
1968 – Greyhound Bus Jingle
1968 – Don’t Waste My Time – The Daughter’s Of Eve
1968 – The Great Train Robbery – The Little Boys Blues
02:03:00
1969 – Kent Schneider – Church Is Within Us
1969 – Untitled – Phil Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble
1969 – Puppet On A Chain Pt.1 – Third Creation
1970 – Like A Ship – T.L. Barrett
1971 – Dignitaries Of Hell – Coven
1972 – I’ll Get You Back – Renaldo Domino
1973 – Jesus Will Help Me – Gospel Comforters
1973 – Jenny – Heaven & Earth
1974 – It’s Free! – The Bishops
1975 – Never Coming Back Again – The Final Solution
1975 – Talking To Myself – Hollins & Starr
1979 – How To Love – Dedrick LaMar
1979 – Boogie Child – Spirit Touch
1980 – Where’s My Dog – The Buzzards

OMG. As Mass Effect grows near and near the videos that increase the hype keep appearing week by week making sure bioware convinces every soul in the world to buy their second run of mass effect. For those who haven’t heard about this game I suggest you get up to date because this game is going to be the bomb. Mass Effect 2 is coming out January 26, 2010. That is only 9 days away. I remember the first time I heard of mass effect I wasn’t that interested until I started watching the trailers about the game. About that time mass effect 1 was one week close to release. I was at least spared having to wait for it for months as I’ve had to with mass effect 2.

In the first game, you could customize the choices of your gender, face, history background and class. Not only that but you could shape your shepard(last name) to be how you wanted it to be. To kill someone or to spare him. To help someone or to go at it alone. This was the choices that made the game so exciting together with its good and bad system the paragon and renegade. Now it seems Bioware is bringing even more customization to the second title with customizable Normandy SR2 which will not only change how it looks but also have a deep impact on the story. Even Shepard’s own room had already been shown to be customizable with the option of displaying trophies and even filling fish tanks with fishes from planets.

The choices that haunted you in the first game which got someone killed or saved are back to haunt you once again on me2. You let the council die? Angered the fan? Helped the rachni queen escape? You better be ready for the consequences. Affecting the game again is also the paragon and renegade system which is pretty well explained in the video. Be the badass of the game or be gentle and a pacificist with everyone seeking hopes without conflict. Your playstyle is up to you.

My most favorite exciting reveal so far are the armor customization. You look how you want to look. You appear in the cutscenes as badass as you want to appear. Customize your suit’s look, color, etc. Customize your casual clothes during the moments inside the normandy sr2. Go watch the video. Its amazing!

Useful Links:

http://www.gamespot.com/showcases/mass-effect2-lc?om_act=convert&om_clk=picks&tag=picks;title;3   – Countdown to Mass Effect 2 together with everyone else.

This evening (Tuesday, 12 January 2010), in his final “state of the state” address to the legislature and the people of Alabama, Governor Bob Riley delivered one of the worst speeches I have ever heard – it was definitely not his personal best.

The way I see it, good-bye and good riddance Bob. You’ve screwed Alabama seven years too long.

You and your cronies cry and whine over public scrutiny given to your $13,000,000 no-bid contract to some nefarious, no-name, no contact information, no website, no identity, no address “company” with ties to your Washington Republican insiders called “Paragon,” claiming no other company or person could do the work. But you’ve been proven wrong by the Huntsville Times, which reported that over 150 Alabama-based companies could have done the work you awarded to that Virginia “company”  by deliberately abandoning the publicly competitive process that saves taxpayers’ dollars.

You boast about jobs you’ve created, but at $55,600/year, which is Alabama’s average household income for a family of three, that $13,000,000 could have employed 233 people in Alabama for a year, or 117 for two years – which is the contract’s term.

It is indeed ironic that paragon means the highest and greatest example; and in this case, it is one to avoid.

Oh… and since you are the undisputed King of No-Bid Contracts – having awarding more no-bid contracts that any other governor in Alabama’s history (against which you campaigned as candidate) – let me publicly call you an ASSHOLE, LIAR and HYPOCRITE.

Alabama Governor Bob Riley addresses the people and legislature in his final "state of the state" address, Tuesday evening, January 12, 2010 in the Montgomery capitol building.

Every computer owner has that awful scenario in the back of their mind that one day their machine will fail to boot up and all those valuable data files, operating systems and applications will be lost forever with little hope of recovery.

Paragon, which has been working in this area for some 15 years, has now provided a comprehensive package that should be able to address and solve almost any disaster situation that might present itself.

Effectively, Backup & Recovery 10 Suite is a combination of three products in one. Drive Backup 10 Professional is the classic system and data protection method which offers a wide range of flexibility in how you go about backing up your precious material and where you want to send it.

The second product, System Backup, is for those who are not so technically minded or just want their protection performed simply, thoroughly and with the minimal amount of user effort.

The last element is a new venture for Paragon: Virtualization Manager, which migrates your physical system into a virtual environment so you can run it in a virtual machine on a different operating system.

Once the disk is installed, you’re presented with a completely straightforward menu with five choices: an instant range of backup and recovery options, the Virtualization Manager, extra Tools either to transfer files or initiate a Burn Rescue Kit, a troubleshooting Log Saver, and links to Support contacts. Every item in the sub-menus contains a brief summary of its function and purpose and a simple click will kick off the process.

The backup process works with Windows XP, Vista and 7 OS computers where there are no more than three partitions on the hard disk, and will automatically source the best place that has enough unused space to store all the data on the main disk. A snapshot of your hard drive will be immediately saved to this location and you can then determine how often you want this to be repeated.

If you choose to follow the Virtualization route, there’s support for popular software like Microsoft’s Virtual PC, VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion.

On the other hand you can also backup to an FTP server, while most system boot problems can be fixed for Linux, PTS DOS and WinPE 2.1 as well. New refinements that will also be welcomed include a more advanced system of filters, better support for Apple Boot Camp and colour indicators in the system tray that warn of possible dangers.
Paragon – Backup & Recovery 10 Suite features – Verdict

For less than $70 you can have a secure piece of software that provides vital backup for your systems and data, that can be as simple or as complex as you make it, in both physical and virtual environments.

*Original Article

    Previously I’ve shared with you many Paragon’s promotions and now today, here is another one. this time around it is Paragon System Backup 2010. A single license of Paragon System Backup 2010 costs around $24. But now you can grab Paragon System Backup 2010 along with free product key and serial number for free.

   The Paragon System Backup application was designed to provide simple and automatic entire system & data backup.

Key features :-

• Simple and Complete Backup
• Easy restore to previous state
• Fast recovery after system failure
• Worry-free Paragon Recovery CD

How to Get it

1. Visit this page  http://www.paragon-software.com/registration/sb.html

(link you seen on many websites is this which is now NOT Working.)

2. Fill in all the required fields. Make sure you enter valid email id.

3. When registration completed, check your email id for a serial number and a product key which will allow you to install the software.

Enjoy!

When I called the guvnuh’s orifice a few weeks ago about the debacle of his $13,000,000 no-bid contract with Paragon whatever (which has no physical business address, no EIN, no website, no business license, no fax number, no general number or any other form of legitimate business presence), it was all I could to keep my Christian bearing, for the human female that barked at my questions…

Yup, barked… as in “woof, woof!”

Okay.

‘Nuff said.

You know, she became particularly irate when – in response to her statement, to which I patiently and attentively listened – I asked, “If this computer expert has some unique and special knowledge and ability as you suggest she does, that rather makes her like God, then, doesn’t it? No one else has either the ability or capacity to do what she has done.“

Yup.

She got mad at that question.

I don’t know why.

It’s rather simple.

And I’m not a media man.

And I told her so.

I just pay the guvnuh’s salary… and Troy’s salary too.

I guess that makes me their boss.

Yup.

I guess it does.

The Orchard Road...

Setahun yang lalu, saya pernah membaca sebuah brosur yang berisi tentang promosi kemeriahan Christmas in Singapore. Sempet kebayang, kapan yah bisa ke sana pas Christmas Season.

Eh, gak nyangka, Tuhan itu baik banget buat kami… Kami diberi-Nya hadiah ini, kesempatan jalan-jalan ke S’pore sekeluarga…. Gratis karena kan dibiayain sama kantor. Lumayan, uang dinasnya lebih dari cukup untuk beli tiket, untuk bayar apartment, untuk jalan-jalan, untuk belanja juga, he he…masih bersisa lagi…huwaaaa….senengnya!!!

Well everyone can go to Singapore, but being there for free, I don’t think everyone can have such that luck!!

Pas mo pergi, udah kepikiran sih, ini kan udah December…berarti kemungkinan besar Christmas Season udah mulai terasa di sana…

Dan begitu kami nyampe…huwaaaa…. Everything is more than we’ve ever expected!!!

Apalagi di Orchard Road-nya. Indaaaaahhhhh dan gemerlaaaaapppppp banget.

Di mana-mana ada giant Christmas Trees. Sepanjang jalan meriah oleh Christmas lamp, patung reindeers yang lucu2 banget, Christmas ornaments…dan semuanya deh, jujur agak susah buat saya to describe it in words…

So, liat foto2nya aja kali’ yah….

Orchard Road during the late afternoon

From the other side :p

The Giant XMas Tree @ Paragon

still in front of the Paragon

@ Takashimaya Shopping Center

on the side of the Orchard Road

note the giant LV bag at the back

The deer and the Santa

the sexy reindeer

Raja could only stare at the lamps around him

inside of the Paragon

the crystal xmas tree

the golden Xmas Tree

the Hippotour... its cool!!!!

the giant PURPLE CHRISTMAS TREE!!!!!! HOOORAAAYYY!!!!!!

Satu hal yang pasti, jalan2 di singapore memang sangat menyenangkan. Tempatnya nyaman banget untuk pedestrians. Lingkungannya modern banget…ternganga-nganga deh melihat kemajuan di sana…apalagi waktu turun ke subway nya…ngeliat bangunan yang sampe 6 lantai di bawah tanah…wuiiihhhh..jadi mikir, tuh ngegalinya gimana yak????

O ya, buat yang doyan shopping, Orchard Road is the one of the best place for shopping. Waktu saya lagi di sana, para cewek lagi pada ngantri to enter the Prada

Wuaaahhhh…kalo gak inget udah punya anak sih mau juga saya belanja banyak di situ… tapi Puji Tuhan, saya masih bisa nahan diri sambil bilang ke diri sendiri… “inget Raja…inget Raja… ”

O ya, ngomongin soal Raja, selama kami jalan-jalan ni anak bener-bener kebingungan ngeliat kesana kemari. Kaget dia ngeliat segitu banyaknya lampu dan segitu banyaknya orang. Yah, Raja memang masih terlalu kecil untuk mengerti dan menikmati semua ini…tapi kami yakin, Raja merasa sangat bahagia.. bukan karena keindahan kota ini, melainkan karena ia bisa menghabiskan begitu banyak waktu menyenangkan bersama papa dan mamanya… Itu yang langka buat Raja!!

Aahhhh….Tuhan memang baik banget buat kami. Banyak sekali hadiah yang diberikan-Nya. Bisa menikmati Christmas Season di Singapore juga adalah merupakan sebuah hadiah untuk kami. Bener-bener hadiah, karena sekali lagi ini gratis!! Gak perlu merogoh kocek tabungan bo’!!!!

Rupanya inilah salah satu alasan mengapa Tuhan membuat saya berkali-kali menolak undangan dinas ke LN sebelumnya, karena Tuhan tahu kapan saat yang terbaik untuk kami…

Duh, jadi pengen nih… next year dapat XMas gift jalan-jalan ke Europe

Oh how fast life is currently moving! I can’t believe it, but all of my classes have ended! First Dj-ing, then latin dance and now African dance! I only have hoola hooping left, thank goodness! So, as a way to fill my time, I have a few new things up my sleeve to keep me busy. I have yet to mention that during all the time that I have been galavanting around the city and working, I have also been doing two full year university French courses. They are taking up a bit of my time, and are more challenging than I originally anticipated, but I need them to apply to Teacher’s college in a couple of years. I have done several online courses during my academic career and have found that Athabasca University is by far the best place to take online courses.  They have the best and most well organized system for delivering material without actually forcing you to go to class.  I have taken an English course on children’s literature, an introduction to women’s studies and now the  two french courses. I have also taken similar style courses through Acadia university that do not compare. I felt this was appropriate to mention in case anyone was interested in taking a course or degree online. Often if you are already in a university program, they will let you take up to 50% of your degree at another institution and Athabasca is a major qualifier, so it can be helpful to anyone who is or is thinking about becoming a student.

In other exciting news, I joined the YMCA! I have decided to become more fitness oriented. In the past I have really dislike the gym, but have decided that if I do this right, I will find a way to like it. I am going to do Aquafit, and a bunch of other classes. This week is tricky because my work schedule is earlier rather than later, but next we I start my regular 9:30 to 5:30 shift, thereby making going to the gym much easier. The times of the classes are very odd but will definitely work. I will let you know all about it when I go for my first workout tomorrow.

The Y is at Spring Garden and South Park Street just up from the Lord Nelson Hotel. If you or someone you know is a member come join me for a work out, I would love a friend to go with!

Stay tuned for other exciting things that you can join and do in this fine city! I’m still working it all out for the next couple of weeks.

And now an update of fun things to do this week!

Wednesday night at the Company House, there is an open mic night where my dear friend Adam will be playing. Remember his name, Adam Sterling, he is both an exceptional guitar player, lyricist and singer. Check out his website by clicking the word AWESOME.

Also, next week at the Paragon on Gottingen, Glen Matlock, yes the former Sex Pistol, is playing an acoustic set. This should be very cool, I am currently trying to get tickets, so perhaps I shall see you all there.

Until next time, stay busy Haligonians!

Spec

   Paragon is offering $29.95 commercial Total Defrag 2010 Special Edition software for free. It is free till 29 November.

Description:-

   File system starts out with all or most of its files contiguous, and becomes more and more fragmented as a result of the file creation and deletion over the time. Thus files and their parts become spread all over the hard disk, which follows the delays in the hard disk work and further lower performance. Total Defrag 2010 is a new comprehensive product for total file system defragmentation and optimization. Built on original Paragon technologies, it performs complete low-level defragmentation that provides almost zero fragmentation level.

It allows you to:

• Perform a complete low-level defragmentation that provides almost zero fragmentation level.
• Speed up and optimize all critical system files and metadata including MFT (Master File Table), directories, paging files, registry hives and others.
• Use 9 File System Optimization Strategies.
• Use one of 2 available modes for defragmentation:Fast or Safe. Safe Mode is slower but it protects your data in case of a power failure during defragmentation.
• Run Paragon Total Defrag without installation. Create a bootable CD or DVD and boot the system and defragment all the available disks directly from it.

Limitation: Special Edition has no 64-bit support.

You must register to get free serial.

Hurry Up!

Download Paragon Total Defrag 2010 Special Edition

Paragon Giveaway Page

Dragon Age: Origins is a recently released game that is one of the precious few to address the effects of organized religion on its world in a non-cynical manner. Instead of being set in a world steeped in nothing but ancient traditions and esoteric ritual, developer Bioware has merged such religious conceits into the “current” storyline of its game in a way that much more reflects reality.

The subtle but brilliant difference here is that every competing faction, every sect that follows the game’s equivalent of Jesus, has a very, very good reason for doing so, for their traditions evolving the way they have, even though most all of them claim a common source.

Most video game RPGs treat organized religion as either a superfluous element of a game’s backstory, or as a huge evil organization that must be destroyed. Here faith systems become the driving force behind the entire plot, finally.

Bei Giveaway of the Day gibt es heute wieder kostenlose Vollversionen von Paragon!

Kostenlos gibt es heute die Programme:

• Paragon Total Defrag 2010 Special Edition

• Paragon NTFS for Mac 6.5

Beide Versionen sind leider auf Englisch – einem geschenken Gaul guckt man aber bekanntlich nicht ins Maul

WORD

paragon [par-uh-gon, -guhn] n. 1. a model or pattern of excellence or of a particular excellence 2. Printing. a 20-point type 3. an unusually large, round pearl ∞ v. 4. to compare; parallel 5. to be a match for; rival

BIRTHDAY

Asa Gray (1810), Dorothy Dix (1861), George Gallup (1901), Imogene Coca (1908), Hank Ballard (1927), Don Cherry (1936), Margaret Atwood (1939), Linda Evans (1942), Graham Parker (1950), Delroy Lindo (1952), Kevin Nealon (1953), Elizabeth Perkins (1960), Owen Wilson (1968), Duncan Sheik (1969), Mike Epps (1970), Chloë Sevigny (1974)

STANDPOINT

OK. What’s irking the shit out of me today is quite simple. People keep asking me, “Why do you write so angry?”

Yes. I write angry. Yes. I am occassionally an angry person. But that doesn’t mean much of anything except I’m one of those folks who’s easily bothered by the people I come into contact with everyday. And you may not be one of those folks. And that’s fine. But maybe you should be.

You see, my problem with people thinking I’m too angry is there aren’t enough of you out there who are remotely angry enough. Being angry or annoyed is not cool because everyone wants everyone to just be cool. But, the truth is, there aren’t enough of you out there acting remotely cool enough.

And, so, if I tend to get a bit animated or a little too passionate about the current state of most everything, you’ll have to forgive me. I’m just not down with everyone being so goddam down about stuff.

QUOTATION

What I’ve learned about teaching is to refer back to the root of that word, which is educo, which means “to pull from.” Education does not mean jamming information into somebody’s head. Rather, it’s that ancient idea that all knowledge is within us; to teach is to help somebody pull it out of themselves. → Alan Arkin

TUNE

Tonight, I’m headed down, with Jer and Ezgi, to World Cafe Live in Philadelphia to see Blind Pilot. I hope I hear “The Story I Heard.” I really can’t imagine a scenario where I wouldn’t.

GALLIMAUFRY

→ Suddenly, pharmaceutical companies have come to the conclusion it might be a good idea to get into the preventive medicine business, instead of the curbing and/or curing side of it. In the next five years, there may be vaccines available for such maladies as Alzheimer’s disease, AIDS, Malaria, grass allergies and even something called traveler’s diarrhea. With the soaring prices of prescriptions and the subsequent scramble to find other options like the internet and Canada, maybe someone at one of these companies said somethig like, “Hey, what if we switch gears and actually try to find a genuine way to help people? I mean, we’ve tried everything else, right? Let’s give it a shot.” Funny, how a completely fucked economical situation can bring out the best in people.

→ A group of Native Americans, who’d filed a suit against the Washington Redskins over the use of the name “Redskins,” had their case tossed out by the US Supreme Court yesterday for, from what I can tell, is a complete technicality. I’m no lawyer, though, so I could easily be wrong. However, what I’m completely unwrong about is that the NFL franchise should just give up the name. We’re headed toward the future here, people, let’s keep our eyes on the ball. (Plus, the Redskins are so bad I’m sure hardly anyone would notice if they became the Washington Suckasses.)

→ Jonathan Safran Foer, author of one of my favorite books of all-time, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, has a new non-fiction novel coming out titled Eating Animals. Check out his interview with the AV Club.