Digressions

So I am getting off of work the other day and while waiting for my bus outside the news stand I see another bus pass by. Along the side of the bus was one of those bus sign ads (I know a unique place for a bus sign ad, along the side of a bus, but I digress) for Jefferson Hospital with the slogan and/or job notice "We are hiring compassion" which to me was a bit odd. While I suppose compassion may need a job, if I am going to the hospital I would prefer they hire doctors and nurses, who I imagine also need jobs and would be of far more use to those people likely to frequent a place like a hospital. This, of course, once again set me about thinking about stupid ads I have seen, one of which was over a year ago and I had planned about mentioning it in a blog back then but now I don't remember if I did or not.

The setting was my last Christmas vacation, not too long after being let go from the radio station. Funny thing about losing your job, you actually have time for a vacation, now, not so much, but again I digress. Hmmm, "Digressions" a new fragrance for Matt. Okay I better stop before this train gets way off track. Anyway, when I am home for an extended period of time I will sometimes venture forth and take a walk, usually over to Sheetz, about 20 to 30 minutes away and grab a coffee and drink it on my way back. Lest you think I am walking for my health, I make sure to have plenty of cigarettes and coffee while walking, but that still has little to do with our story. One of the last places I pass before making it to Sheetz is a pet crematory. Outside the establishment they have a lit up sign identifying the place, as well as one of those programmable scrolling message board type things underneath, the temperature and time would pop up, then another message would come scroll across the screen, followed by the time and temp again, then another message and so on and so on, as the old shampoo commercial might say. As I am walking by one of the messages programmed into the board pops up and says to be sure to get your 2009 calendar, which I am sure the business hands out as a means of promotion, but the first thought that crossed my mind was, "Why the hell would I want a calendar of dead cats?" Maybe I am the only person to whom such a thought would occur, I really don't know, but needless to say I did not stop in for their giveaway.

If that were enough of stupid ads maybe I wouldn't bring it up as a blog topic, but tonight I am watching the first round of NFL playoff games on NBC. They had two, the Jets-Bengals and then the Eagles-Cowboys, and during the games they would run some promos during the commercial breaks, such as the coming season 3 premiere of "Chuck" on Sunday night (which I am so geeked for because Yvonne Strahovski is hot) as well as promos for the upcoming Winter Olympic games, which NBC has the rights to. During one of the promos I am seeing clips of Michael Phelps, who may or may not be a nice guy, or may be a nice guy when he is high and a dick when he isn't, I don't know, but last I checked he was a swimmer and swimming was a Summer Games event, not Winter. Please tell me that the coverage will actually focus on the current games and not on games that happened in a different season 2 years ago.

BRB, I have few things to take care of. Sorry, had to put away my Polish feast of a dinner, which was quite tasty though my ass has already fired off a couple of gas grenades that were impressive in their ability to make my eyes water. I also had to play off all of my scratchix cards. Not that I won anything, save for more tickets on some. Here is what my last day on Scratchix looked like....

　

Jan 10 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 10 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 10 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 10 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 10 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 10 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 10 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 10 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 10 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 10 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 10 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 10 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 25 scratch cards (prize value:5.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 25 scratch cards (prize value:5.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 1 scratch card (prize value:0.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 3 scratch cards (prize value:1.00 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD) Jan 09 2010 10 scratch cards (prize value:2.50 USD)

Lots of more tickets, but little else. At least my giveaways elsewhere have been a tad bit more profitable. On Swagbucks I reached the 45 swagbuck plateau again and picked up my 5th $5 Amazon gift card. I thought I had actually accomplished this a day earlier, but those dang blasted rules and regulations got in the way. See, in a nut shell Swagbucks is a search engine, not unlike Google or Yahoo or what not, the difference being twofold, 1) You can actually earn swagbucks for using the site, or for finding different swag codes that they have hidden in numerous places and 2) as a general search engine they suck. So what ends up happening is if I want to go to a place like Multiply or Facebook I will just type in the name in the search bar in hopes I win something and usually the link I want is within the first couple of hits. Now if I wanted something more specific, say the nuclear program of Isreal, then I might be better off with a Google search instead. The thing is there are also affiliated sites with Swagbucks, and they too offer the chances for winning prizes and what not. As luck would have it, recently a memeber of the band Avenged Sevenfold died, and they have a search engine tied to the Swagbucks people, so they offered a swag code for one hour that if you went to the Avenged Sevenfold site and entered the code you would get three bucks. All cool, found the code, went to the page and entered it and I was three bucks richer, except......you can only use those bucks on the affiliated pages, so anything I got on the Avenged Sevenfold site could only be redeemed there, even though it showed up in my Swagbucks total. Not that it mattered a whole lot, I got the three needed bucks within the next 24 hours, and I just dumped the 3 useless bucks on raffles, but it was a glitch that I was completely unaware of and something I will not waste time on in the future, I don't care how many members of Avenged Sevenfold kick the bucket. Still I did get my 5th card today, I should get the promotion code for it on the 16th and then I will have another $5 to spend at Amazon.

As an added bonus, one of my Christmas gifts may get me even more Swagbucks in the near future. I mentioned I got a gift card for WalMart for Christmas. My mom sprung for a $100 gift card and I used part of it to buy a pair of pants, a sweat shirt and some groceries but still had almost half of it left. One of my plans this weekend was to head out to WalMart and spend some more of my cash but in case you hadn't heard, the weather around these parts has been sucky to say the least. A trip to WalMart on public transportation becomes less bearable of an option knowing that one will be standing outside waiting for a bus. Cue up the Swagbucks. One of the ways to earn bucks, besides just doing searches and entering codes is to buy stuff through stores on their website. For every $5 spent you get another buck. Lo and behold WalMart is one of said stores, so I sat down last night and ordered me a Starter fleece jacket as well as Iron Man on DVD and spent about $20, except I didn't spend anything, I put it on my gift card. There is something very satisfying about shopping at home and spending nothing in the process. Now, once my order is aproved and shipped I should get and extra 3 to 4 Swagbucks as well.

If that were the only gievaway I would tinker with that would be cool, but I am still also working with Coke Rewards. I had been adding a decent amount to my account there and finally decided to cash some of them in, actually a large chunk of them but in return I got another free year on Pogo.com. I think I have almost a year and a half in reserved time on that site now just from finding codes and entering them online. My next target goal there is to see if I can get to the maximum prize level, which is 2000 points. There really isn't much at that level I want, the Stoneware Mixing Bowl set looks okay, but I just want to see if I can do it. I know I have a case of Coke returns sitting at work (they are out of date so they can't be sold) that as soon as we get credit for I can dump out and take the points off of the caps for my own use. For now I am sitting at 80 points, so Stoneware (or any cool prize they may add) is still a long ways off.

Have I bored you to tears yet? Trust me, the tears here are coming from too much sauerkraut.

In caes you hadn't noticed, I went about changing the background theme around here. During the whole moving of servers that was going on at Multiply my old background disappeared, at least on my computer. While it probably would have come back (I noticed it was still listed as the background in my custom theme setting) it was time for a new coat of paint around here. At first I was going to go with a Mount Washington pic I had taken during the day (the old one was from Mount Washington at night that I snagged off of a restaurant website), it was a decent enough photo but taken when it was really overcast and grey out and I have seen enough grey skies around here recently that I didn't want to see them on the blog page as well, so I dug through more of my photos and opted for one of my walking tour pics, the Cathedral of Learning on the Pitt campus, about 5 blocks from where I currently reside. The building has a unique history that I will not get into here, but if you are curious, by all means, go read up on it here. For me this blog will be long enough without getting into even more details than I already have.

Since I didn't bother with the trip to WalMart, that meant one thing off of my list of to dos for Saturday was already taken care of, but I still was going to have to venture out and fetch me a bus pass. I thought about taking the camera along and making it one of my walking tour blogs, but I was running a little late and having my camera wasn't as important as getting on with my day. Besides, if I opted to wait and catch the next bus, I know it would have been like smacking a snooze alarm for my motivation for the day. As soon as I talk myself out of getting up once, it becomes easier and easier to do it again and again. Far better to just leave the camera behind and get about the task of attacking the day. Usually I will get my bus pass either downtown or at one of the many Giant Eagles around the area. Since I didn't get it while I was downtown Friday that meant to Giant Eagle I go. Of course I have a few options that are all relatively close by public transportation standards, I could walk up the street to Forbes Avenue, much like I did in my last walking tour blog, and catch a bus to Squirrell Hill, I could walk a block further in that direction and catch a bus headed to the South Side, or I could walk over to the Blvd of the Allies and catch a bus headed for the Waterfront. Since the Blvd is the closest and I am not one to like standing around in the cold if I can help it, the Waterfront was the winner.

I stopped and picked up some smokes at the corner store and as I was leaving there was the bus coming and I just barely made it to the stop on time, as a missed bus would have kicked in the whole snooze alarm thing for me as well. I hopped on the bus, cracked open my Einstein book and headed out to start my day.

The Waterfront really isn't that far from me, I was there in maybe 15 minutes or so, so I climbed off the bus and started walking down the road to the actual shopping area. The entrance to the Waterfront has three sets of train tracks crossing it and because it was cold (though not nearly as bad as it has been), and snow was again starting to fall, you had to know that a train would come barrelling through just to keep me from reaching my destination. Eventually the train did pass and I headed for a beakfast at Eat N Park, where I had a breakfast consisting of a Mexican Omelet, homefries, coffee and toast. The omelet was a new menu item and was okay, though it could have been spicier for my tastes. Plus breakfast gave me more time to work on finishing my book.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

　

Sorry, I took a little break there. I was up typing pretty late and just felt a nap coming on. Now, having gotten a little bit of sleep and having fired up a pot of coffee I think I am ready to get back at it. Now where exactly was I? Oh yes, the Waterfront trip.

After breakfast I went and picked up the bus pass and also did a little grocery shopping. I got some things to throw together a couple of crock pot meals, a toy that I love cooking with in winter. I got my stuff for a Polish feast (sauerkraut, kielbassa) since I already had pierogis at home. I also grabbed some hot dogs in case I wanted to do the kraut and dogs thing later. I also got some stuff to throw together a mean batch of chili, and a couple of odds and ends that either I thought I might need or were on sale and thought they might look good in my cupboard until I got about putting them into my stomach. Then it was back home to watch some TV and after the high school All American football game, I threw the Polish stuff together in the crockpot and watched the two NFL playoff games. I also managed to finish off the Einstein book, which those of you that pay attention to the page will have noticed. I am pretty close to finishing off a second book this year. I made the mistake of reading two books at the same time. I know some people can do that, for me though it just leaves me feeling like I am not accomplishing anything in the reading department if I find myself quetsioning which book I should be reading. For the most part I had the Einstein book in my bag and would read it on the bus and when I was travelling, then the other book I had on my bed and would read most nights before I would go to bed. The downside of buying all of those books after Christmas is that I have so much right now that I want to read that I have a hard time disciplining myself enough to finish one before starting the next. Now, since I have got one of them out of the way I can go back to reading in a more normal manner for myself. I am close enough that I should be finishing the other book I started in the near future, though I imagine it will have far less appeal to the readers of this blog than the Einstein book, it is about the business side of the NFL, and I know how well nancyball goes over with the likes of many here.

I did complete another online offer yesterday, it was inside my pack of cigarettes I bought and it was for $10 off of Marlboros, either in the form of two $5 off coupons for cartons or 10 $1 coupons for packs. I opted for the ten coupons because rarely do I buy cartons of smokes and while I could take all of them to work and redeem them on my charge sheet even if I didn't buy them, $1 coupons I can actually hold on to and use as needed as opposed to the $5 ones where about the only place I would use them is at work.

I was listening to the radio last night before falling asleep and I heard a commercial for another website I need to check out, www.gocougar.com, a website for older women to find younger men to date. I am hoping this has as much comedic value for me as my old standby, www.womenbehindbars.com. I know the radio spot was hilarious, with a bunch of men doing one of those military chants they do when they are marching, except the entire rhyme they were doing was about how they were all going to hook up with older women. Now if the behind bars people could come up with a commercial or two, maybe a woman rattling her coffee cup against the jail cell bars asking for a man, that would be priceless.

Elsewhere in our little land of blog believe, I guess it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for me to do a change meter update. Not that there is much to add, just .24 but if I am going to preattle on and on, this seems worthy of prattle. The new total is $139.52.

Since the new Food Friendzy is now reset over at Facebook I think I will take a second and see how I do today. For those not in the know, Food Friendzy is a Facebook app where you can win coupons for local restaurants. I have had okay luck with it recently, a couple of $1 off coupons and one $2 off, but it has been a couple of weeks since I have ordered in, so most of them have just gone to waste, the coupons are only good for three days. Still, every week they pick one member and one team that each win $100 dollars off, so I went ahead and created a team (Black N Gold) to which I am the only member for now to ever so slightly increase my chances of winning. Okay, 275 points this morning, that is good for a $1 coupon (175 points) and 100 entries into the weekly drawing, plus I won an additional 10 entries on tile selections, an additional 10 points to start with tomorrow and I am shielded from having points stolen for the next 24 hours. The site is linked to two sites that I know of for delivery, allmenus.com and one that I use, campusfood.com. Rather than call up a restaurant and place an order, you go into the applicable website and set up an account and then based on your zip code, they give you a list of places that deliver to your address that are also members. Since I live right next to a college campus I just use the campusfood.com server. They will then take the order for the restaurant online and place it for you. Those places that deliver will still deliver, other places that are pick up only you obviously have to go get. Their selling point seems to be that 1) it provides a web based service for those restaurants that otherwise wouldn't have it and 2) rather than paw through a number of places everything you need is laid out on one specific webpage. Since I had been using campusfood well before I had started on Facebook, this just became a no brainer for me.

Sorry, had to run out and pick up some smokes and settle in for day two of the NFL playoffs. I signed up for a free fantasy league on NFL.com. Just a lark more than anything else, I certainly don't plan on winning anything which is good because the two guys I had yesterday were pretty much useless, Marion Barber and DeSean Jackson. Today I am doing a little better, Ray Rice already has close to 100 yards rushing and two touchdowns and the game is only in the second quarter. Most of the guys I have play in the second game today.

I also bought a few scratch off tickets while at the store. Spent $10 bucks and for a change I actually won, $28 total which I guess pays for the cigarettes.

Also spent some time working on my resume for Clear Channel radio. I am just doing it in bits and pieces since they have a save resume option.

Okay, back again, took another break, shorter than when I went to bed but a break nonetheless. Checked the messages on my phone for the first time in almost a week and found out Rich had called me, so I returned the call and he and I chatted for an extended period of time. I also had some internet issues, not sure if they are computer related or not, but kept getting signed out of Facebook, as well as having some problems on a couple of other sites, like Gmail, where I couldn't get in. I devised a temporary solution to the Facebook problem, by going through Swagbucks and connecting that site to my Facebook account, but still can't get into Gmail for whatever reason. It doesn't show up on my Igoogle page, nor can I go through the Gmail site. I have a couple other options I can try and may get around to it before the evening is over. Aha, just came up with a temporary fix, using the mail2web site. So far so good, I can see all of my emails anyway. Doesn't look like I missed much, just some Facebook notifications.

I also tinkered again with the Neverending Thread, since I finished the second book I blogged earlier about. I also changed my Virtual Bookshelf (a Facebook app) to show the next book I am reading, which I really haven't gotten into all that much just yet, wanted to finish the last one first.

And of course I reheated the leftovers from last night, added some more kielbassa to the crock pot and have it keeping itself warm in the kitchen so I will have good eats come time for the "Chuck" season premiere in a couple of hours. I guess I should put a wrap on this thing, that way I will have some time before the show starts to go back and do a little spell checking. Not a lot of spell checking, but some. Till later.