It's time for another Appleton Mystery Photo™ Contest! This contest ends Friday, Nov. 5 at midnight. Person with the most correct answers wins, or, if there is a tie, the earliest submission wins. That means if you can tell me the location of all 10 photos--oops, I've got 11 this week--, you win instantly. Not easy, though. Actually, this round should be called the Fox Valley Mystery Photo™ Contest since a few of the photos are from the Fox Valley (hint: Neenah and Menasha). Some are very easy, but others are quite difficult. Winner gets a coupon from our sponsor, Glass Nickel Pizza, for a free 14-inch large pizza (specialty pizza or up to four toppings), a value of up to $17.70. (You're still responsible for tax and tip.) Glass Nickel is also one of the most aesthetically interesting restaurants in the Valley because of the photography on their walls from, uh, yours truly. Yes, the 11 x 14 or 8 x 10 photos displayed there can be purchased. Other sizes are available.

A couple of notes and hints: One of the photos is of one of my sons at a site that some people like for Neenah prom photos. Three of the photos were taken indoors in places where the public is welcome. I did not have to pay any kind of entrance fee to go there to take these photos, but for at least one of the indoor places, there are events held there that may require a ticket sometimes. For the one showing a dock, to get full credit, tell me how to reach the place where I stood. That means giving an approximate street address, or the name of the apartment complex nearby--don't just say "on the shore of Little Lake Butte des Morts." For onbne of the photos, you might be tempted to name a place that is actually very large, spanning many acres. That's not good enough. To get full credit, give enough detail that someone could go there and take the same photo without having to wander around like a professional voter fraud practitioner who got lost en route to their fifth voting booth of the day. Oh, one more suggestion for this round: click to enlarge.

Good luck!


Mystery Photos, Set B. Deadline: Midnight Friday, Nov. 5, 2010.

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Background: Week 1 photos and introduction, also answers for Week 1.

This week's Appleton Mystery Photo Contest has come to an end thanks to the outstanding photo detective work of Appleton resident Evelyn Li, who has managed to correctly identify all 10 of our mystery photos for the week.That's her standing on the stairs that were one of the more difficult photos to identify. The most difficult, though, was #2, the "Y" that many people assumed was part of the YMCA. She was the only contestant to identify that correctly.

Here are the winning answers:
1. The Fire - by College and the Durkee Street - always see photographers there shooting senior photos.

2. The Y can be found by the boat sale warehouse on S. Oneida St. This one is by far the most difficult one. We knew that we have seen it somewhere but couldn’t recall. (She included a photo of her standing in front of it.)

3. The building is part of Lawrence University, near the Appleton downtown Y. Brokaw Building.

4. Those stairs can be found on newly built College Ave Bridge. (See the photo above.)

5. The newly restored old church by E. Harris Street and Durkee St.

6. The Mary Gold Mile sign can be seen at the corner of Olde Oneida Street and Oneida Street.

7. In front of The Building for Kids museum The Il Angolo restaurant in the background gives it away.

8. The S.C. Shannon building is currently occupied by the Appleton Area School District on Morrison St.

9. The Body Shop is a tattoo shop, located on Wisconsin Ave, near Richmond St.

10. Highland Memorial Park on Richmond Street, next to the Affinity Health Center.


Here is what Evelyn has to say about her victory and about Appleton, used with her permission:

Most locations were easy to find, since they are either close to where I live or they are on my way to work.... What got me stuck were the Y and the stairs. The Y painting got solved when you provided the hint since we recognized the warehouse. But we spent lots of time looking for the stairs, especially when you hinted that one of them is located south of Hwy 441 [Jeff's note: this was an error on my part. Sorry!]. We resorted to Google maps and Bing/Live maps to scan every building along the major streets south of 441! (Found some great places to visit in the near future though.) Eventually we analyzed the clues in the photo: new paint, new wide cement steps, and road sign along the top of the steps. We decided to check it out ourselves at 10:30 on a stormy night!

I have lived in Appleton for more than 12 years and still love it every single day. We found your blog (Appleton Rules!) many years ago and have relied on it for suggestions of all sorts of places to eat and to visit. Appleton has the best balance of big city variety and small town charm. Pretty darn good food and excellent tiger paws of course.

Congratulations, Evelyn! I'll have more photos posted this week to begin next week's Appleton Mystery Photo Contest. Evelyn wins a free 14-inch pizza from our sponsor, Glass Nickel Pizza--one of the few places in town where you can see some of my photos mounted on the walls. Go check them out and let them know that you came for the photos (and the food). Yes, the photos can be purchased. Contact me for details. Good luck on the next Mystery Photo Contest!

Calumet County is considering adding a half-cent sales tax.  The theory is it will help reduce property taxes. Good luck with that. How about reducing spending? Government jobs nationwide have been increasing, government salaries have remained bloated, while jobs that contribute to the economy have been declining and salaries dropping. Let's cut the size of government before we cut the economy even more.

While on the topic of spending, has anyone noticed how many of our expensive concrete roads in this area are torn up and rebuilt year after year? Out in southeast Appleton, Midway Road and nearby roads have been torn up and rebuilt about six times in the past decade. Midway and Plank Road just received two very expensive roundabouts this year. Did we really need to spend so much money at this time of economic crisis?

Contestants for the current Appleton Mystery Photo contest have struggled with the mysterious "Y" photo. Many assumed it must be part of a YMCA building, but that's not where it was taken. It was taken in Appleton but not near the downtown Y. To help you find it, here's photographic clue taken just moments before the challenging "Y" photo (#2) was taken. The clue isn't a piece of cake either, but good sleuths should be able to move forward.

One more hint: you may not be able to see this easily by just driving on major roads in Appleton. That's why the clue photo may be needed to help you hone in on this one.

Ben Miller of Appleton was the first person to correctly identify at least 5 photos in this week's Appleton/Fox Valley Mystery Photo Contest, netting him a coupon good for a free 14-inch pizza with up to four toppings at the delightful Glass Nickel Pizzeria. There's still one more prize for this week for the person who gets the most correct answers. No one has identified all 10 yet. You have until Friday at 4 PM, but the first to get all 10 wins instantly.

Congratulations, Ben!

Ben has a blog that I'd like to share with you: BenAndLeanna.com. I'm adding it to the links on the lower left side of this blog under "Other Blogs from Fox Cities Folks." Kudos, Ben and Leanna!

The big headline story on the front page of this morning's Post-Crescent newspaper is "'Coming of Age' Book Challenged in Appleton." The story features a nice color photo of the book The Body of Christopher Creed. It's supposedly a dark book and some parents may feel it's not appropriate for use in middle school, hence an objection by a parent and a front-page story. We can learn two important lessons from this:

1. There isn't any news about the Packers right now that would make people want to buy a newspaper.

2. A single concerned parent objecting to a book can result in front-page publicity for that book.

With Lesson #2 in mind, I need to alert Appleton parents about an even darker, more objectionable book that is even more inappropriate for use in middle school. It's Conquering Innovation Fatigue: Overcoming the Barriers to Personal and Corporate Success (John Wiley & Sons, 2009). Please, dear readers, would one of you help save the children by launching a protest about this book? No, it's not currently being used in the schools, but what kind of parent would sit back and what for that threat to occur before defending our children? NOW is the time to act and let the world know that we won't stand for this kind of garbage messing with the minds of our children. Kids exposed to this book could very well turn our to become social misfits such as inventors or entrepreneurs instead of going into sports. Let's work together to ban it now! Why do I care so much? Hey, it's all about the children.

If you're not in Appleton, no matter. This is a book that should be objected to across the nation, especially where local sports teams aren't doing well. Make sure you contact your local media to explain why this book is so inappropriate. Watch the comments below for good ideas on how to object and why.

Care to join the fray? Just let me know your reason for banning this book. The person with the best reason will win a free copy of, uh, Conquering Innovation Fatigue. Deadline for submitting your reasons is midnight, Oct. 31. Post them here or send me email: jeff at jefflindsay.com.

It's been a while, but I'm finally ready for a new round of Mystery Photo Contests. From now until Christmas, we'll be giving away free pizza each week, courtesy of Appleton's hottest new pizzeria, Glass Nickel Pizza. Glass Nickel Pizza has awesome pizza crust with top-notch ingredients, along with delightful salads and sandwiches. And I love the clever artwork made with thousands of nickels embedded in the glass (actually acrylic, I think) along their bar. That's not the only artwork you'll see at this establishment. Glass Nickel now features some of my photographs from the area on their wall (right side of the restaurant, last time I checked). Yes, the photos are available for purchase.

So here's how the context works. Each week I'll post some photos from Appleton or the Fox Valley (I'll tell you if any are from outside of Appleton). Identify as many photos as you can and tell me where each photo was taken. You get points for each correct answer (one point per photo unless otherwise indicated). Person with the most points that week gets a coupon worth up to $15 for a free pizza (you still need to cover the taxes and tip). Identify the location by giving either the approximate street address (e.g., "intersection of College and Meade, north side" or "169 W. 8th Street") or identifying the establishment (e.g., "interior of Lawrence Chapel" or "outhouse behind Planet Lindsay LLC Global Headquarters"). My immediate family members are excluded. Sorry, honey!

Here are this week's photos, all from greater Appleton. To submit your answers, email me at both jeff at jefflindsay.com and jeff at magicinnovation.com. That decreases the chance of missing your answer. I'm the final judge.

Oh, I'll sometimes provide hints during the week for more difficult photos, so check this blog regularly. Special update: We'll have two winners this week. One for the person with the most correct answers, and another for the FIRST PERSON to name 5 or more locations correctly. So hurry!

If you like any of the photos on this blog or elsewhere on my website, ask the good folks at Glass Nickel to display it there. The best recommendation for a new photo that results in an addition to Glass Nickel's display will win a pizza as well.

Here are 10 photos for this week. Photo #5 features my brother, FYI, the famous Dave Lindsay, owner of Avalanche Studios, the place to go for professional video productions. Get your answers to me by 4 pm on Oct. 29. I'll try to announce the winner of Week 1 that evening. Meanwhile, anybody can enjoy great pizza and a little photography at Glass Nickel in Appleton. Hey, other pizza places and restaurants in general are welcome to become sponsors of the Appleton Mystery Photo Contest.

One more thing: please don't give away any locations yet in the comments.

Mystery Photos, Set A. Deadline: 4 PM Friday, Oct. 29.

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One hint: At least one difficult photo is taken near a major street south of Hwy 441.

If you've got trouble with your garage door or need one installed, I'm happy to recommend a company and an expert that wowed me today. Norman Teer, the owner of American Door Systems and Controls, gets my highest accolades for expertise, honesty, service, and going the extra mile. He can be reached at 920-730-5697.

My heart sank the other night when I pushed the garage door button to close it before locking up and turning out the lights. As the door closed, I heard a horrible crunching sound. I opened the kitchen door and looked out to see the garage door pressing down on the back of my car--I had left it slightly under the garage door because a couple bins of apples were in the way from our apple harvest. The opener that moves the garage door had continued pressing down so hard that the top panel of the door had been ripped open by a metal bracket that kept moving into the door. Another panel was warped. The beam that holds the garage door opener looked bent. I figured everything was ruined and needed to be replaced, and guessed that it would cost $2000 or so. I was mostly worried about the car, but it was unscratched, amazingly. Thank goodness for shocks.

With three sons in college and a fourth going back to BYU in January (he just returned from a two-year mission in Taiwan) and several people around us needing financial help, and with the largest tax rise in history about to take place in January (ouch! don't do it, Steve!), and with some other demands on our resources, I was worried about facing a huge bill for my stupidity in wrecking the garage door. (To be fair, the boys all have great scholarships and hardly cost us anything, but we do help a little.)

I called ADS (American Door Systems) as a somewhat random selection after Googling garage doors in Appleton, WI. Am I glad I did! Norman came over that day and explained a lot of things to me -- I love it when skilled people can teach and explain what's happening. He helped me understand why we've had problems with the door for years, and some of the errors that others had made in installing it and then repairing it. He also explained that he could take advantage of another repair job to get door panels for me at no cost. He also showed me how the trolley had been damaged, but not the beam, and told me the most cost effective route would be to order that part myself from Sears, but he could do it if needed.

A couple days later, I had the part and he had the panels, and so today he came by and installed it. He again explained a lot of things to me and helped me understand more about the door and its maintenance. He got everything looking and operating great. I was expecting all sorts of charges besides his time in the bill, but was amazed to see that he only charged me for his time. In fact, he only charged for part of his time, being a little too tight with his chronology. After all he did for me, he only asked for $65. I was flabbergasted and told him he was being unfairly generous. I wrote him a check for a lot more than than, but it was still under 10% of what I thought the cost would be, and far far less than I would have paid anywhere else, I 'm sure.

You probably won't be this lucky to have expensive replacement parts provided for free, but I'm willing to be you'll be delighted with the expertise and professionalism of Norman if you have him do your door. He's a real expert, dedicated to high quality and safety, and is just too kind for his own good. Please don't let him get away with undercharging you!

Now the garage door opener is set so that the door stops its descent after only a light force is encountered. Before it could have seriously hurt someone, or ripped the door to pieces before it stopped if something like a car was in the way.

When you do get a new door, make sure you get the higher quality springs that Norman always uses (springs that can last for roughly 20,000 cycles). They last much longer. And make sure each door has two springs to support it, not just one. Much safer when a spring finally fails.

As I write, I'm at Fox Tire on Valley Road, one of Appleton's longest running tire service shops. It's in an old building, but I just noticed that they have free wireless. It's great seeing so many places recognize that customers who may spend time in your shop might appreciate free wireless.

My favorite wireless hot spot in town is the Outagamie Country Airport. No need for overpriced Boingo or other commercial wireless services--it's completely free and not nearly as annoying as, say, the free service at the Denver International Airport that keeps adds mounted on every page and requires you to log in again every 30 minutes or so.

The Appleton Public Library, a real gem of a library, has free wireless, of course. As do many cafes and restaurants such as Copper Rock, one of my favorites.

What are your favorite hot spots in town?

A friend of mine at one of Wisconsin's coolest companies, Red Fusion Studios, is looking for a User Experience Designer. See http://www.milwaukeejobs.com/jobs.asp?pagemode=15&jid=2107614. The project they have is in the lower Fox Valley, so while the company is further south, they likely wouldn't have to relocate for a while, if ever. Eventually, they may want the person in Madison or Port Washington. But at the rate Red Fusion is growing, they could easily open a 3rd studio in the Fox Valley. That would be cool!

Here's some info from the posting:

Red Fusion Studios is seeking an experienced interactive designer. We need someone who is equal parts strategist, architect and art director. This individual will be responsible for coordinating with the internal team to solve a complex but exciting user interface problem. We need someone with talent and skills in both graphic design and user experience design. That is, someone who can design the structure and experience of an interface and then apply an aesthetic layer over that structure. Moreover, we need this person to play a mediation role between the various client stakeholders, help align their internal priorities to actual user needs, so great communication skills are a must.

Requirements:

* BA/BS in Graphic Design, Information Architecture, User Experience, or portfolio demonstrating equivalent expertise
* 6+ years professional experience creating interfaces
* Application UI design experience preferred
* Information architecture experience preferred
* User Experience design experience preferred
* Expert skills in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop a given
* Excellent communication skills a must
* Must be self-managing and able to deliver quality result, every time, on time

To apply, please provide a resume and links to an online portfolio to: beth.pelland at redfusionstudios.com

Tell them Jeff Lindsay sent you!