My misadventures at Red Carpet Inn, Grandview Plaza/Junction City

I posted this on trip adviser dot com:

I stayed at Red Carpet Inn, Grandview Plaza/Junction City, while in-processing at Fort Riley.

The lobby smelt funky, the carpet was dirty and showed its age. A stack of phone books sat in the corner, many stained or stuck together. One locker showed age and disrepair. I walked up to the counter, and pushed a buzzer. The owner's wife came out and checked me in.

She pulled out an old "receipt" slip and had me fill information in. Then she stowed it in what looked like a mail box set up (what you'd see if you were a mail clerk putting mail in different post office boxes). She handed me two key cards, and I took a couple of my duffel bags to my room. I opened the door when "WHAM!" it hit me.

The moldy, musty, smell of carpet and wall decay. I left the room to retrieve the third duffel bag... the owner walked it toward me. After sitting my duffel bags by the dresser, I looked around. I tried to turn the lamps on, but the lights kept cutting out. You had to figure each lamp's "personality" out, they had a little "trick" that kept them on.

A film of dirt covered the horizontals. I broke some baby wipes out and started cleaning. I cleaned the horizontals and the lamp out. I cleaned the bed's headboard out. The wipes were black by the time I threw them in the trash. The sink had the normal "cheap motel" set up, with plastic cups and coffee basket. But there was no coffee, and the napkin holder in the wall had no napkins. Butt where it lacked napkins, it overcompensated with rust spots on its surface.

There was also a "dip" in the floor. You could hear it "creak" when you walked on it. I wondered if this contained old paraphernalia or worse, dead bodies. The smell seamed to justify it.

The bathroom had a sink cabinet with just a horizontal surface where the sink would be. A garbage can sat on top of it, with the last guest's trash still in it. A dead fly lay parked on the bathroom floor. I decided to leave it alone to check how room service does its job. That fly was still there when I checked out 10 days later.

The walls had seen better days, wall paper wasn't the only thing caving up and wrinkling away. The walls were starting to fight loose from their restraints. Stains were already working their way up from the broken seams.

I went to the refrigerator to check it out. It wasn't cold, heck, it wasn't working. I didn't check the microwave, I didn't even want to know what was inside it. I got into my civilian cloths to begin my weekend. I grabbed my sunglasses and headed out the door. The sidewalk by the room had black, grey, brown and white blotches on them. Dry bird droppings were splattered near my doorway.

An active bird nest sat on a piping right above my doorway. Feces flowed down the nest and pipe.

The parking lot also had caked in stains and potholes. The filth frequency increased as you got closer to the trash can, which overflowed and radiated a powerful stench. The ground near the trash can looked like a junkyard, with old televisions lined up waiting forever to be picked up.

The pool held shallow, brackish, still water. Garbage waste and vegetation floated on the top, while weeds and vines on the pool area's edges reached tree-like size and proportions.

The owner did do something about the pool. I started a conversation with the owner as he watched the contractor drain the pool. I commented about guests being able to swim there one day. He said that if they wanted to swim, there were other pools in the area.

Room service came, took used towels and hand cloths, but didn't replace them. They never replaced the complimentary soap and shampoos. I had to ask the owner for these items.

I had an opportunity to talk to the owner throughout my stay there. One day, I ran into him--he was all spiffed up. He told me that he was fixing to go see a lawyer so that he could purchase 40 acres of land, and to purchase buildings and materials to start entertainment businesses.

One quick thought came to mind. "Why isn't he using that money to renovate his Red Carpet Inn? It definitely needed massive refurbishment. The walls need to be redone, the rooms need to be re-carpeted, new light bulbs need to be reinstalled, the sidewalks and pavement needed water hosing, many of the beds needed to be replaced.

One day, I saw the owner and his wife fighting each other. The momentum of their fight caused both of them to slam against the glass doors. the owner did talk about dating other women.

The negative here are pretty much accurate. I wouldn't recommend staying here. If you're a soldier reporting to Fort Riley, make reservations in advance to stay in Army Lodging, or to stay at one of the other hotels in Junction City.

Schedule tight, but will say something for today...

This'll be a short post today. We're seeing that the stimulus isn't working, but they're still talking about increasing spending. This is like administering a metabolism slowing drug to someone trying to lose weight. Perhaps the government should step out and let the economy fix itself.

We'll be back

Been away where I didn't have access to the Internet. I'll post more as my schedule opens up.

The next Ice Age steadily approaches...

I checked a blog site where friends and family post. They're located in different parts of the country, and they talked about one thing, how it's cooler than normal. My friends back at my hometown are practically freezing...on June 6, 2009. I'm in the Deep South, and we're witnessing cool weather between the warm weather days.

Someone wondered what's going on.

What's happening is that the world continues to cool down, we're headed into an Ice Age. Anecdotal experiences match actual temperature data, as parts of the country saw June snows in locations that normally don't get snow. Enough snow fell in the UK to "make a snowman."

More on this in future posts...

Helium.com doesn't want you to see this article

I got a message from Helium.com one day, telling me that one of my articles got deleted. They justified the deletion by saying that it "violated" terms of use, and contained non-factual information. If you go to Helium.com and read their articles, you'd notice that the majority of their articles contain non-factual information. They're nothing more than the authors' opinions.

So, could you see what it was that I wrote that touched a nerve?

Here's the article's title: "Is the Helium Rating System Really Fair?"

And here's the deleted article:

The answer is, "not really." Like Craigslist's flagging system, people have found ways to defeat Helium's rating system. Their incentive is to further their; and their friend's, standing at the expense of other Helium writers.

Most Helium raters have good intentions, and will rate an article based on what they think is the best one. Helium has different writers with different experiences. These writers have different opinions on what makes a "better article." This makes Helium's rating subjective; it's nothing more than opinion.

When you have a peer rated community like Helium, or peer regulated community like Craigslist, you have the opportunity for abuse. The following are nine of many ways that Helium raters can bias or manipulate the rating system.

1. Helium raters judge articles inconsistently.

For some Helium raters, the article has to be error free. For others, the article has to look like an author or journalist wrote it. Some raters may judge how close the article addresses the title, while other will favorably rate writers that write like them. Then we have raters who'll judge based on the format, or on article length.

For example, a writer would rate a short article more favorably than a long article; even if the longer one is better written.

2. The Helium Gang Maneuver; a circle of Helium friends take action.

If you've made friends here, and you talk to each other on a regular basis, you know how this can potentially work. Helium friends could send article links to each other. As these writers rate articles, they'll keep a lookout for their friend's article; then rate it more favorably. If they have a leapfrog article, then they'll rate their friend's new article so that it replaces the old one.

The Helium Gang Maneuver is similar to how Craigslist posters work together to flag a post they disagree with-or nominate one for "Best of Craigslist."

This trick can be used in conjunction with the other methods listed in this article.

3. Helium raters that rate articles based on ideology.

How did you react when someone said something you passionately disagreed with? If you're the type that'd jumps into a conversation firing with both barrels, then you'd understand how these raters react. Instead of going into debate mode, they rate against the article they disagree with. It wouldn't matter if the other article were poorly written.

4. Helium raters rating articles based on literary tone.

You have two articles sitting side by side. One article looks like it could be a piece from a "sophisticated" novel, journal, university paper, magazine or newspaper. The other article looks like it was written for the common person. This rater rates the elitist article more favorably over the "common folk" article.

5. Helium raters with unsuccessful leapfrog attempts rating articles.

These raters had their hopes of improving their rankings dashed. These Helium writers "get even" by working against another writer's leapfrog attempt. They open a second browser and search for the original article. Then they go back and rate the original article very favorably.

6. Helium raters getting even for lowered ranking.

While rating articles, they have a second browser open. They find the current ranking of the articles they're rating; then favorably rate the lower ranking article. The intent? One of those articles could belong to the people that adversely affected the rater's article ranking. This concept is applicable to rating leapfrog articles.

7. Helium raters sabotaging their competitors.

The writer's "circle of Helium friends" will rate the contest taker's articles more favorably, regardless of how well written the other articles are. The contest taker will rate against their closest competitors to help keep them down.

8. Helium raters with clone Helium accounts.

One writer creates multiple PayPal accounts, then creates different Helium accounts using different IPs. This is possible with an IP shuffler, or IP shifter, software. The writer would log in under several of these clone accounts in hopes of rating their main account's article. Once they get lucky, they rate their own article more favorably.

9. Mass flaggers on Craigslist have software that allows them to quickly flag posts for removal. If those people are posting articles here, they might find a way to use that program to "spike" their article's page views.

This might seem like hard work, and require coordination. But if people have friends writing articles in different interest areas; and money is to be gained, many people will make the effort.

Spotting phony military veterans

You're sampling books in the bookstore when someone stops you.

"Hey man, got some change for a veteran? I served in Nam man!" Or, this one, "I'm a SEAL Lieutenant Commander; I served 4 tours in Vietnam!" As he goes on with his self bio, he tells you that "SEAL" means "Sneak, Enter, Attack, Leave" or "Secret Energetic Agent Lad."

Are you an employer with an employee that goes on "secret SEAL missions" during the weekend?

Maybe you're a veteran. You walk out the store's door when someone wearing camouflage pants; who has long hair, and who's packing a sub sandwich in his mouth, sees your military style hair cut. He asks, "Hey brother, hook a fellow veteran up?"

Phonies, or posers, they're out there. They fool a lot of people in the community and steal respect that's normally reserved for those that served and made sacrifices. There's a way for you to spot these people:


http://www.ehow.com/how_2075205_spot-phony-military-veteran.html

How to have fun with Bible Thumpers:

Want to really frustrate bible thumpers? Ask them to describe God and the angels. The bible hints at what God looks like, and it's detailed about what angels look like. Nowhere in there do they describe God as an old, "heavy set" middle aged to senior citizen with white hair, long white beard and a flowing robe. Nor does the bible describe angels as beautiful women wearing robes; flying from cloud to cloud with birdlike wings on their backs, while they play with harps.

But, chances are real strong that your bible thumpers will try to describe them as such, using guesswork. Here's how you could really mess with their minds:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2074333_deal-bible-thumpers.html

If community members rated each other, would they rate fairly if money and status were at stake?

Helium is a place where you could write articles. You don't have an editor hacking your draft multiple times before it gets published. But, without an editor reviewing your article, it could still earn money. On top of that, you have the opportunity to earn $20.00 to $100.00, or more, in their Market Place.

So, how could you write articles, not be edited, and still make money? What's the catch? One of them is that your fellow Helium writers rate your articles. Based on how they rate you, your article could rocket to the top, or sink to the bottom like a rock. The higher your article, the more you could earn. The lower your article is ranked; chances are you won't earn money. Is this system fair?

Let's look at Craiglist. One of their goals with their flagging system is to get the community to regulate itself. The idea is that people would flag posts that violate terms of use. However, if you watch a debate in progress there, you'd have an opportunity to see how people could abuse Craiglist's flagging system.

Could Helium's rating system get abused so that a writer could make money at your ranking's expense? If you decide to join, please let them know that the guy that wrote this article sent you:


http://www.helium.com/items/1290186-helium-rating-system-not-fair