Blogger 365 Day 36 - TITIT #18 The past repeats itself

     So I was wondering just what it was I would blog about, when a couple of weeks ago I saw a cover of Sports Illustrated's Super Bowl preview edition of their weekly magazine.  On the cover was this image....

      While that cover may not mean anything to you, and if it did then it may mean even less now since Denver did get the shit kicked out of them in the Super Bowl, the title of the lead story is what stuck with me, if for no other reason then I used to do blogs in a similar vein, blogs that were titled "TITIT" for "Things I Think I Think".   But just because I remembered something I used to do is not in and of itself reason enough to do it again, I have to have opinions on multiple topics in order for a TITIT to work.  Luckily for you, today is such a day. 

      Starting off with the big debate last night between Bill Nye and Ken Ham at the Creation Museum over evolution versus creationism, the only thing I can think of is why?  Does anyone really believe this type of debate on the internet is remotely informative?  Rather is is just supporters of each man coming together to shout at the other side, not much different than a political debate in that regard.  The person I hold to blame for this most of all though is Bill Nye.  Why in the world would you even lend a shred of credibility to Ken Ham by sharing a stage with him?  This is akin to comparing the cinematic greatness of "The Godfather" with that of "Ernest Goes to Camp".  I get the creationist argument, belief relies on faith, but belief is not science nor should it ever share the same stage with science.  I can believe my cock is 12 inches long but the fact of the matter is we have a way of measuring things, and if my cock were to be measured then my belief would be shattered by evidence to the contrary.  Nye diminishes himself by sharing the stage with a charlatan such as Ham.

     I am not a fan of rap music by any stretch of the imagination, but if the planned boxing match between George Zimmerman and rapper DMX takes place, I will definitely be on the side of DMX in that bout.  There are few people on this planet who I would say I enjoy watching them get their ass beat, but George Zimmerman would be high up on that list. 

     CVS is saying that come October 1st they will no longer sell cigarettes in their drug stores.  Being they are a private company, far be it from me to tell them what they should or shouldn't sell, but CVS can quit lying to the public when they say the reason they are doing it is because of the health risks involved with smoking.  If CVS were that worried about the health aspects of the products they sold, then they would not be selling aisles of junk food and soda in their stores either.  Rather this is merely an issue of dollars and cents, cigarettes are one of the lowest profit margin items a store can sell, usually falling into the 12-15% category, though places that sell at state minimum pricing can see that margin fall down to about 9%.  CVS has already made inroads in cutting it's labor force by shoving out its lowest paid employees in favor of self checkout scanners, where one person can just watch over 5 or 6 different terminals, thereby eliminating 4 or 5 cashier jobs in the process.  The only counter in CVS that is manned on an even semi regular basis is the one where you by cigarettes, so if you take away that product, you take away the need for that cashier as well.  CVS is less concerned with their customers health then they are concerned with their own financial well being. 

Multiply 365 Day 309 - TITI #16 - Random thoughts

So Michele Duggar is pregnant again.  For those that don't know who she, or the whole Duggar clan are, they are on TLC's 19  "Kids and Counting" because,well, she has given birth to 19 kids.  And it appears that she is pregnant with child #20.  I know we have given this warning out on the blog page before, but in case Michelle missed it the first time, "It's a vagina, not a clown car."

Whoever advised Jerry Sandusky that he should do an interview with Bob Costas about the 40 charges against him relating to having sex with at least 8 different boys should be looking for work right about now.  That was super creepy in a not good for Jerry Sandusky kind of way.  Admitting to showering with boys, horseplay in the shower with them and touching their legs (but in a non sexual way), yeah, he is going to make a nice prison bitch for someone.

Just another reason why I like hockey.

So Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain stumbled when asked a question about President Barack Obama's policy regarding Libya.  Well, it could be worse, he could pick Miss Teen South Carolina as his running mate.  Quick, cue the blog title's music






$1 can't get you much these days.  Unless of course you are the wife of Joe Paterno, in which case it gets you the house.  At least that is what he sold it to her for in a mysterious financial deal. Maybe she really is that good in bed or it could just be to protect family assets in case of pending civil suits in the Sandusky matter.

And lastly on the PSU incident, can Mike McQueary stop with the false bravado already.  Sorry Mike, this case isn't about how good you should look, it's about the 8 kids that Jerry Sandusky raped, so making up stories about your behavior on the night in question after the fact just to make yourself look good is almost as disgusting as what actually took place in the shower between Sandusky and the 10 year old boy he was molesting.

Every time Indianapolis quarterback Curtis Painter drops back to pass, he strengthens the case that Peyton Manning is the most valuable player in the NFL.

Multiply 365 Day 204 - TITIT #15 That's hot, or maybe not

 

As the old saying goes, it's not the heat it's the stupidity. With that we are underway.....

I like watching financial analysts on TV. Pontification on what will make the stock market go up or down, or what is good or bad for business. I just wish they had one for the death of Amy Winehouse. I would pay good money to see a Jim Cramer or Neil Cavuto on TV telling us how her passing will affect the global price of crack. Certainly there will be more supply with one less major buyer out there. Would it have been wise for me to have a put option on cocaine, or should I have sold short? Damn it people, I need answers to these questions.

Here it is, Saturday July 23^rd and somehow, some way, the Pirates are still very much relevant. If you had told me at the beginning of the year this would happen I would have laughed right in your face, but with a 51-46 record and sitting just a game out of first place in the division, there is some reason to be optimistic about the Pirates this late in a season for the first times since probably 1992. The first real test for the team will not be how it continues to play on the field, but how the front office approaches the trade deadline. The Pirates do not necessarily have to be buyers at the deadline, that would depend on what is available and what it would cost versus standing pat, but if the front office once again becomes sellers, trading away players for prospects, then you will be able to more accurately gauge management's support of this team.

So it would seem the killer in the Norway rampage, Anders Behring Breivik, is apparently a fundamentalist Christian,, gun aficionado, anti tax and anti immigration kind of guy. Here in the states he would be a Tea Partier. Just sayin.

In case you didn't get the invite, today was the big day for Ben Roethlisberger, who married one Ashley Harlan. Considering at this time last year we were all wondering whether Ben had raped an underage girl in a night club's bathroom, excuse me if I don't run out and buy a toaster for the happy couple. Maybe this will end up being the perfect marriage and I will eventually look like a fool, but I am going to keep my skeptics hat on for the time being.

One of the unreported benefits of a hot summer. Coming home all sweaty and getting naked and standing in front of the fan and the first breeze that blows across my sweaty ball sac and the resulting goosebumps. I know, you didn't need to know that but I share because I care.

At some point this blog is going to need a concession guy walking around with eye bleach. “Get your eye bleach here!! Eye Bleach!!! $2.50 a bottle!!”

So apparently 3 female reporters were asked to remove their bras by security before they would be allowed into the offices of the Israeli Prime Minister. Note to self: The blog needs better security.

And with that I bid you all a fond adieu. I have a whole day off tomorrow and I might just want to enjoy the down time.  When I come back, no bras.

Mulitply 365 Day 197 - TITIT #14 An unplanned rant

 

Just sitting down to blog a little because as I am typing some nonsense is on TV once again. “Who Do You Think You Are?” is on, a boring bit of tripe if every there was one. The premise is pretty simple, a celebrity goes in search of their family's past, a past that before was so important to them that they didn't bother with it until TV cameras were involved. Someone wake me when they air my favorite show, “Why Do You Think I Fucking Care?”

Well then, I guess that is as good a way as any to kick off a blog entry. Don't worry there is more, so much more.

Signs of the apocalypse; 4 women in the last three weeks say that I am losing weight, one even compliments the goatee, I kiss a lesbian in my local watering hole and it is July 16^th and the Pittsburgh Pirates are not only 4 games above .500 but are in first place to boot. The last time they had a record this good this late in the season was 18 years ago, which was the last time they posted a winning record. Perhaps the Mayans were right, 2012 is just around the corner.

For all of the outrage over the Casey Anthony trial, there has been little detailed analysis over the News of the World/Rupert Murdoch scandal here in the states that may be a far more outrageous story. To break it down in a nutshell here is what happened. The News of the World is a Murdoch owned tabloid style paper in Great Britain. In an effort to scoop their competitors, the NOTW began hacking voicemails of some people. Some of the hackings, despite being illegal, would seem harmless enough in the grand scheme of things, such as finding out minor scuttlebutt among the royals and what not. But the story takes a turn for the far, far worse when it was learned that one of the phone being hacked was that of missing teenager Milly Dowler. Dowler's phone was allegedly hacked and the voicemails removed by people working for the NOTW, which created a false impression that the murdered teenager was in fact still alive and receiving messages when that wasn't the case at all. And the information in the voicemails became more fodder for the paper itself. Other victims of crime, such as family members of the 7/7 subway bombing and families of slain school girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, as well as phones to family members of dead UK soldiers were also hacked to feed the tabloid beast. While this would seem to be primarily an across the pond type of story, Murdoch has significant media holdings in the United States as well, including the Fox Network, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post to name a few. If it turns out that some of the phones being hacked were in fact people that were in the United States at the time of the hacking, celebrities here for shooting a movie and what not, we have a brand new ballgame in the realm of spectacle, because now you are violating the laws of two different countries and if there is one thing we can do with aplomb here in the states it is spectacle. In an effort of damage control, the head of the Wall Street Journal has already been fired, but that may be akin to putting a band aid on a bullet hole if this all breaks the wrong way. And I am thinking, couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

And since I mentioned the Casey Anthony bit in the previous paragraph, can we stop with the outrage over the verdict already? I get it, most people believe she killed her daughter (as do I) because having a baby interfered with her party girl lifestyle she wanted to lead. But at the end of the day we lock people up for what they did do, not what we think they did. And the prosecution in this case did an absolute horrendous job in providing any evidence in linking Casey to the death of Caylee. Sure, they did a great job of creating speculation, but that isn't evidence. I could speculate that the moon is made of cheese, that doesn't make it so, at some point I have to go to the moon, grab me a moon rock and bring it back and make a sandwich out of it or something to show that it is in fact cheese, otherwise I am just talking out my ass, which is pretty much how the prosecution played its proverbial hand in this case.

Another miscarriage of justice along the lines of stupid prosecutions would be the Roger Clemens steroid trial that seemed to get thrown out of court almost as fast as it arrived. In pretrial motions submitted to the judge, the judge made it clear that the wife of Andy Pettite, a former teammate of Clemens, could not be a witness for the prosecution in court because what she claims Clemens told Pettite who then relayed it to her would amount to hearsay testimony. So what does the prosecution do in day one of the trail but play a video and in the video are mentions of the very same testimony that the judge already ruled inadmissible. Check please, that's a mistrial and we are done here. When I mock “government work”, sure sometimes it is just a play on words, but when you see federal employees drop the ball this egregiously it sure makes phrases like that stick.

Well hell, if I didn't know better I think I just thought stuff.

Multiply 365 Day 182 - TITIT #13 Fingerpainting with words

There really will be no rhyme or reason to this blog, so if someone is looking for a theme or purpose they are going to be sadly mistaken. Instead ladies and gentlemen it is time once again for Things I Think I Think

It has only taken 5 and half years (and then some) but the change meter has finally broken the $300 mark. Yes, another productive month, gathering in a tidy little $8.28 and the new total sits at $303.75.

So the Minnesota state government shut down today. Maybe it is the cynic in me, after all I have very little grasp on Minnesota state politics, but why does this feel more like a grab for an extra day off during a holiday weekend than an actual budget crisis?

A sting operation involving Chris Hansen? Excuse me if it slightly warms the cockles of my heart that this time it was Hansen himself who was the object of the sting operation as he got busted fucking around on his wife. Mr. Hansen, that knocking on the door is the Boy Scouts, they would like their morality merit badge back.

The new jobs responsibilities? All I can say is it is what it is. In the long run it doesn't look like it will be all that complicated, just time consuming. The plus is that I now get to take the laptop to work and listen to Pandora at my desk. And more money. After all, it is always about the dinero.

I am not sure I am liking the start of the free agent period for the Pittsburgh Penguins. After toying with the idea of bringing back Jaromir Jagr to the Pens, instead day one saw the Pens lose out on a chance at his services, as well as losing the services of Max Talbot and Mike Rupp, only getting Steve Sullivan back in return. Even if both Malkin and Crosby come back at 100% to start next season, the teams glaring weakness is the same as it was last year, ample scoring from their wingers and that issued hasn't been addressed yet. Sure there is still time to tackle that issue, but when your first big free agent signing is an injury prone person on the downside of his career, it is not what one would consider an overall improvement.

The baseball season is now at the halfway point for the Pittsburgh Pirates. After 81 of 162 games Pittsburgh has a record of 41-40. In most cities this would not be something to crow about, but when the Pirates have had 18 consecutive losing seasons then this qualifies as a vast improvement. It remains to be sen if they can keep this up over the second half of the season, on one hand their hitting has vastly underperformed but their pitching has overperformed, so maybe this is the year that the streak gets broken. But I am not running out to buy my Bucco tickets just yet.

Mitch McConnell is an idiot. The Senator wants a balanced budget amendment attached to the United States Constitution. Or at least so he claims now. After all he was the Senator of the great state of Kentucky when Republican presidents were running up massive deficits (all the way back to Reagan for those playing the home version) and nary was a single word uttered from the lips of the fine upstanding man from Kentucky during those times. Nor is there even the slightest possibility for this notion passing, this is nothing more than grandstanding in lieu of actually doing ones job . Does anyone out there really think that McConnell plans to go all the way with this? To muster a two thirds majority in both the House and Senate and then take this idea on a tour of the states, where he only needs 3/4ths of the states to ratify it before it would actually be tacked on to the Constitution (see that School House Rocks stuff did pay off as a kid), or is it more about McConnell showing how “tough” he is on the administration by running his mouth for a couple of headlines, then not to be seen again until the next crisis comes along. I get it Senator McConnell, you are the guy that is going to show the administration how much you are working for the American people, but until you have the balls to see that whole process through rather than just grandstanding about it, sit down and shut the fuck up.

I think I am suffering from Cuban sandwich burnout. Ed threw me $20 to buy dinner tonight, and I went the Cuban route, yet I couldn't even eat the whole thing, so either my stomach has officially shrunk (three people in the last week said I looked like I had lost weight to which I said “Where did it go? It was just here”) or I am finally tired of the Cubany goodness. I really hope it is the former and not the latter.

Well I have a big holiday weekend, just not the vacationing variety. I have to place orders for two stores tomorrow and paperwork, lots of paperwork, plus I want to be up to watch the Wimbledon women's final so I am going to call it a night. So for now we are done here.

Multiply 365 Day 130 - TITIT #12 Get linky with it

Did you ever wonder have one of those "the body is willing but the mind is weak" moments? That is where I am this evening. I am thinking I am just about due for another TITIT blog, but I don't know if I have enough to ruminate on properly. I could treat it like a high school essay and just write a lot of words until i got to the required number, but that hasn't been my style before, no need to start now.

I guess the best place to start would be with what has become one of my favorite punching bags of late, Donald Trump. Seems the Donald was speaking in New Hampshire and told the crowd in attendace that torture works. I would beg to differ, his show is pretty torturous, and based on the numbers for this past Sunday, that didn't help it as it ended up third out of the 4 network offerings at both 8pm and 9pm.

Funny thing, as I was looking up that last piece of info, this piece of info popped up as well.  Can we get a little Yvonne Strahovski love in this here hizouse?  To steal from the Greek philosopher Barack Obama, yes we can.

 

This Sunday will bring about the pain and carnage know as the Pittsburgh Marathon.  Not for the runners, and not even so much for the citizens of Pittsburgh (though the race makes getting around town a nightmare), but for the fine cans of ravioli that reside here.  This is Pittsburgh folks, and we will be damned if you will get your ravioli on our lawns.  In fact, security will be even tighter this year, with the race being broken down into sectors should there be another pasta uprising.

Excuse me if I use a previously used joke in here, but one final word on the death of Osama bin Laden before I close the book on that chapter of the blog.  That bullet in his head?  It's kinetic, wonky, wonky, wonky.  Now, everybody dance.  Just like you were taught many years ago.

For the record, how did that song ever become a dance craze?  I don't know if I have ever seen a video with more people having no rhythym than that. 

There are times when I am at a loss for words.  I can't make any more fun out of someone than what the story already does.  So ladies and gentlemen, a big round of applause for the man in bra and panties and the dead goat story right here.  This is the type of stuff that gets your state it's own tag on Fark.  So when I make fun of West Virginia in the blog from time to time, it isn't because they are a football rival, or because they are a neighboring state.  It's because they have sick freaks like this running around.

Okay, I think that is enough for one day, just one more annoying link to add and we are done.  After all, how many links are you supposed to click through to read a simple blog anyway.  I can only think of one more.  Night everyone.  Yes, I am a dick, lol.

 

 

 

Multiply 365 Day 116 - TITIT #11 Reality bites

I'll try not to be distracted this evening, but with a game 7 going on, chances are I will be at some point. Here is hoping I perservere and that the Penguins win (not necessarily in that order). But I have some shit on my chest this evening so a TITIT-ing we will go.

Last night was the most recent edition of "Fat Camp". Promos ran all week about how this week someone would quit the ranch for the first time. I can't say I watched the show, I opted for sleep instead, but I did get a quick recap online this morning before heading out to work. Now I argued previously that, unlike what the promos stated, plenty of people have opted to leave this season. Sure their choices involved weigh ins and then deciding between a few people before someone would do the noble "fall on my fat for the greater good" routine in volunteering to leave. But this week one of the contestants had to leave for "personal reasons" even before the weigh in. That may have been unique in the show's history, but the notion that it was the first time someone quit most certainly wasn't. In fact the show this year might be better off being called "The Biggest Quitter" than anything else. Oh, and lest we thing a trend didn't continue, the person who was voted out again managed to somehow gain weight at fat camp, only the third time in the last 6 episodes she had managed to bulk up rather than down. Do they not vet these contestants? Or are the trainers just that bad? Because with results like these, we all know what we call it around here; government work.

In something that will mean nothing to anyone outside this region but needs to be said anyway, whoever decided on the ads that Mark Flaherty is running in his bid to be county executive of Allegheny County needs to be fired immediately. Mark Flaherty does have a decent resume, including a stint as county controller. But during the ads they talk about how as controller he conducted audits of different agencies to better serve the fine people of Allegheny County. Included in those is his auditing of the Port Authority, Pittsburgh's mass transit agency. I am sorry, but given fare increases and service reductions by PAT and constantly running to Harrisburg, cap in hand, to complain how broke they were, the last thing a candidate running for office needs to do is say, well hey, I audited them. That too, would appear to be government work. Perhaps Flaherty could call a press conference where he kicks puppies also, I am sure that polls very well.

President Obama has released his birth certificate to the media. I am not sure what to make of this. On one hand, I never questioned his citizenship, if that story ever had legs beyond a fringe movement, either Hillary Clinton or John McCain would have used it in 2008. But by the same token, if there is one thing we know it is that is there is no appeasing moonbats, so by releasing the birth certificate, we can expect a round of "It's a forgery" nonsense because that is just what moonbats do. I am sure Jerome Corsi is already typing up the taking points.

I am hating being a football fan these days. Don't get me wrong, I love to watch the game and as readers know, I more than enjoy having a fantasy football team or two each season, but when it comes to the whole potential NFL lockout I really have no sympathy for either the players or the owners. Sure I would hate to have year without football, but I just can't garner any sort of concern for either side in this debacle.

Note to everyone, dumpster diving in Oakland begins in the next week or so. The college kids are moving out again and will most certainly be too lazy to pack anything up, which means lots of potential treasure will be curbside over the next couple of weeks. Anyone who knows me knows that the only thing better than stuff is free stuff.

I have an admission to make. While most everything I write on the page here is honest (I don't recall lying, but am to lazy to do the legwork that is required to fact check about a decade worth of blogging material) the reader doesn 't get everything. Much like the Supreme Court can't define pornography (they just know it when they see it) I can't tell you the reader where the line is between that which I should and shouldn't tell, I just know it when I see it. Maybe at a later date I will extrapolate what it is I am talking about now, but suffice it to say that as I write this, there are things that are going on that I wish not to disclose. We will call them trade secrets and move on.

NBC is premiering another reality show called "The Voice" this evening. The premise of the show is that 4 singers build teams from a slew of contestants, people that they will apparently coach or something. The stipulation is that, when the contestants first come on the stage, the singers/judges will have their backs to the stage and judge the contestants solely on their voice. Is there a more shallow concept for a show running today? Well okay, Kardashians aside, the notion that if one of the judges looks at a contestant and is all, "I want nothing to do with that Quasimodo looking person on the stage" and this is deemed as a good idea, speaks volumes of how shallow of a people we have become.

Okay, ranting done, because I need to save some material for a later date and the hockey game is still on so I am still officially distracted.

Multiply 365 Day 109 - TITIT #10 Corsi-can'ts

Long time readers to the blog know of my dislike for one Jerome Corsi. He is the moron who has peddled in such stupidity as the Swift Boat campaign used against John Kerry and the North American Union nonsense (and just where are the defenders of that inanity these days?) so it should come as no surprise that he is once again out there doing what he does best, that being glomming onto an issue and running with it, no matter how completely wrong he is, facts be damned. This time he is pitching a book on the whole Obama/Birther issue. Rather than get into the specifics of the book, which I will not waste one iota of time reading, let me just say that Oprah Winfrey has a better chance of being a lingerie model than Corsi does of actually getting something right.

I have a confession to make, I think female ice hockey players are way hot!!!!! And consistently so, not just there is a hot one here or there. Sure there are beach volleyball players (who are also hot) and softball players (some are hot, the ugly ones usually play first base or catcher) and basketball (where most are not) but for my money when it comes to sports, consistent hotness goes to hockey chicks. And don't get me started on figure skating, it isn't a sport. We have had that argument before. Anything involving a judge's interpretation for scoring isn't a sport. A physical skill perhaps, but not a sport.

Free stuff is still the best stuff. Coke is offering free college T shirts this month in their mycokerewards program. All you need to do is first enter the code ncaatshirt on the webpage, then 6 caps from 20oz bottles of Coca Cola products and taa daa, you get a free NCAA T shirt. You don't lose any points, you just get a free t shirt. I have cashed out twice so far (the contest ends on April 30th) and have the caps laying around here for at least one more shirt.

Why are there no episodes of "Cheaters" where the person who is asking for assistance is in fact proven wrong and no cheating is taking place? Not that I have anything against the trailer park like drama that unfolds on a typical episode, but where is the episode where the suspicious person is wrong about their concerns?

For pure sports drama, I am not sure there is anything more compelling than a Stanley Cup playoff game in overtime. While I have been around to see three Stanley Cup winners in Pittsburgh, possible the best game I had ever had a chance to witness would be the Penguins - Capitals game in 1996, which went an entire game and almost four complete overtimes before the winning goal was scored. I remember the game starting around 7pm that night and when I got off my shift a little after midnight it was still going on. I say that because as I type, game 4 of the Pittsburgh - Tampa Bay series is going on and again we are in overtime. I hope I will not be up until 1am waiting to find out who won.

So the color coded Terror Alert system, which I mocked in the past as being all but useless is being replaced because it was too confusing and in it's place will be a two tiered system with statuses of "elevated" and "imminent" and all kinds of maps and stuff. The fact that this reeks of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic isn't lost on me, but I am wondering if we are going to have "terrormen" standing in front of the maps with their kazillion watt mega doppler pinpoint accuracy terror radar so that you the viewer can see the terror threat as it approaches your neighborhood.  Or as Julie Bologna might say, it is not just terror, it is hyper terror.

One overtime down and we are still not done. Damn I love overtime playoff hockey, so I am going to stop now and focus my attention elsewhere.

Multiply 365 Day 93 - TITIT #9 (or to quote The Beatles TITIT #9, #9, #9, #9, #9....)

I got a few things on my chest and none of them are man boobs, so hi ho, hi ho, a ranting we will go.

President Barack Obama today started the process of his reelection, with a realistic possibility of raising as much as $1 billion dollars in his effort. How will he do this? It is simple really, money flows to power and to winners. Anyone looking to hedge their bets in 2012 in hopes of buying influence can either throw their money at an incumbent who will run unopposed, or pick Larry, Moe or Curly from the GOP and hope that they pick correctly. Does the President carry baggage going into a general election? Absolutely. But so do almost all, if not all of the Republicans that may be running against him, plus they will be spending money just to see who gets that privilege to be the Republican nominee.  Any talk of Hillary Clinton mounting a primary challenge to Barack Obama is just wishful thinking on the Republican's part, which speaks volumes when they consider the best challenge to Obama to not even be a member of their own party.

What is the deal with the Cialis ads these days? I was watching golf on Sunday (there was nothing else on) and I saw a few of these boner pill ads. You know the scenario, husband brushes against wife, they have that little spark and then it is on like Donkey Kong. Except it isn't. Because the man's junk doesn't work. But that not a problem with Cialis, because with it you are always ready, unless you aren't. Instead of then showing pictures of husband and wife getting their freak on, we get them going on a walk, or camping and pitching a tent (but not that tent) and I am left wondering just how damn long does it take for this pill to actually work anyway? Are we talking minutes, hours or days? Because I have to think if you have enough time to then pack to go camping, set up a camp site, pitch a tent, build a fire and you still haven't gotten it on, she may have just been better off saying "Look honey, I got this", went upstairs and pulled a toy out of her top drawer and pleasured herself than stand around waiting for their kids to graduate college before dad's member decides to kick into action.

So one of the topics of morning shows across America this morning was how bad the opening night of Charlie Sheen's "Look at me, I am a self destructive assclown" tour was Friday night in Detroit. Now I am not a defender of Charlie Sheen, his is a glorified script reader and little more. But upon hearing that people were so unhappy with the show that they began booing him and leaving the show, all I could think of when it came to the audience is, it serves you right. Let's be honest, you bought tickets because Charlie Sheen is a train wreck and you wanted front row seats. Well guess what? You paid for a train wreck and that is exactly what you got. Sheen is not a stand up comedian, his skill set has nothing to do with writing his own material, the people he surrounds himself with are not those that are what one would call compelling characters, so why would you expect anything remotely entertaining to come out of his performance? You paid to see a guy with minimal skills ply his non funny schtick, so why would you expect to get Shakespearean theater?

Another reason why I use more than just Facebook is on display right now. As I type this Facebook is having one of those shit the bed moments where nothing loads right, pages don't come up, searches come up blank, just an all around clusterfuck. Not that I will ever adopt Twitter, me and 140 characters just don't mix, but if I learned anything from Yahoo and the whole 360 experience it is too never leave all of my social eggs in one basket.

I will never, ever buy a bag of Cornnuts. If I know that when I eat average, every day corn it basically passes right through me, why would I want to make that process even more painful buy having nuts packed inside the corn? What, glass wasn't available?

I know I am getting old, not because I am not keeping up with musical trends, or because I couldn't name half of the so called celebrities of today, but because I can sit down and watch an episode of "Katie Brown Workshop" and think, you know, she's kinda hot. Truth be told she would be hotter with leather boots and a riding crop, but that is a blog for another time.

And on that rather not so pleasant note (well it was pleasant for me) I am outtie, like a bellybutton.

Multiply 365 Day 86 - TITIT #8, You didn't think I was done, did you?

I've been lack in firing off of these particular diatribes, the TITIT as it were, but since I have time right now and the TV is cooperating by there being nothing on (I swear I saw Kid Rock polluting my TV screen at one point) I might as well get down to business.

First I was getting all settled in for a night of "Chuck", which would have been fine by me, it probably also would have meant I wouldn't be doing this particular entry this evening, but the show was preempted for some music pat someone on the back nonsense that happens far more frequently than it should, but before the preemption could begin there was a speech given by our fearless leader, Barack Obama, regarding the military action that is taking place in Libya. I suppose I should have watched with rapt attention for some piece of serious information, but after watching oh so many of these things I know that is never the case. Worse still, no matter what he said, Obama wasn't going to change a single solitary mind on the matter, so I am at a loss for just what the point is. Those who like him will cite his words incessantly as though they were the stone tablets coming down from the mount as proof that the current course of action is the correct one, while those that don't would almost never be convinced that there was any sort of justification for what is taking place. Which is why I tire of these types of press conferences in general, they shed so little light that they become almost pointless. I'd rather he just come out and say, listen this is what we are doing, for those that don't agree, lick my taint. And that be it. Because it would be about and convincing as anything he could possibly say, so there really is no need to argue in flowery words when those words will be forgotten almost as soon as they are spoken.

I wish I could say that is my only issue with television these days, but it isn't even close. As I was sitting here the other evening, I forget what I was working on on the computer, but I will sometimes have the TV on above me, more as background noise (though not right now, for now that is Pandora's job) than anything else. But whatever it was I was working on, apparently the Celebrity Apprentice was on. I have railed against this show in the past, so I am not going to go down the road of the assclowns that opt to kiss Donald Trump's ass for a few seconds of screen time, but for how the show ended. By and large I hate reality shows with a genuine passion (though I do make exceptions for Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers to name two) but once someone agrees to appear on one of these piss poor attempts at entertainment, it might be nice if they actually try. But four times in the past two weeks people have volunteered to leave rather than compete (a fifth person tried but didn't succeed, that in and of itself is a skill worth noting), but if you are going to quit then don't sign up for the show in the first place. I don't want the speech of how I am sacrificing myself for the team, others need this more than me, blah, blah freaking blah. Once you sign the dotted line to appear, you are now there for my entertainment, so dance monkey.

I made note of Pitt losing to Butler in the NCAA tournament, due in large part to what Pitt was expected to do after receiving one of the tournament's 4 #1 seeds and yet they were bounced after the first weekend, losing to Butler. Butler last year made the NCAA championship game, but this year's squad wasn't as good, managing only to get a #8 seed in the tourney, so when Pitt lost to them in was an upset and all of the squawking that comes with a team allegedly underachieving, but a weekend later and the loss doesn't look quite as bad, with Butler making as far as the Final Four and now just a game away from appearing in their second straight National Championship game. So maybe, just maybe, Pitt didn't lose to that bad of a team after all. Not that their loss isn't still a disappointment, it most certainly is, but they didn't lose to a bunch of scrubs who were happy just to be there either.

The Port Authority of Pittsburgh, the organization that runs public transit in the city of Pittsburgh (buses, subway) on Sunday instituted a 15% service cut because of the often cited budget problems. Among those cuts were some routes that were eliminated, others that saw service reduced, layoffs and a closing of one of their bus garages. This after recently increasing fares once again, because of those same argued budget problems. All of that is bad enough, but if you are going to reduce service and cuts routes, one would hope that the ones that remain would be more properly run, yet there I was waiting for a bus this morning that showed up 15 minutes late. If anyone ever wanted to take a doctorate level course in mismanagement, I bet you could get a job with the Port Authority upon graduation.

Memo to NBC, it is not a premiere if the show has been on for months. I say this regarding their recent promos for "Law & Order: Los Angeles", where they are touting a premiere on April 11th. The problem is that the show has been on for a while now, the only difference between what has been on previously and what will be on come April is they are killing off a character. I can't really say that it is a beloved character either, given the show is only half a season old, rather it is a stunt killing, that by knocking off one of their characters they might draw an audience via a gimmick rather than quality writing. Maybe it is just that time for the L&O franchise, god knows it has been on forever and is harder to rid yourself of than a sexually transmitted disease, but packaging a character being killed off as a premiere for a new show reeks of desperation. If anyone wants to see desperation that bad, might I suggest you come and watch me try to pick up chicks on a Friday night. It will be far more entertaining, I promise.

On a final note, I would like to make mention of the fact that since I added the little global tracker on the side of the page we have now passed the 2000 page view moment. While I would like to take credit for about 1900 of them personally, according to the doohickey people have checked in from 6 continents (get on the ball already Antarctica) so just want to say thanks everyone. Hopefully I haven't scared you off yet. I need something for the next blog after all.

Multiply 365 Day 44 - TITIT, #7 even

     I didn't think I would be going here this quickly, but alas I am.  I hope that this doesn't become a recurring theme, I hope my creative juices aren't so spent that I am just wallowing in TITIT blogs for the rest of the year, but events since the last blog entry have piqued my curiosity, best I get them on paper now than wait until later on to comment on them, where I would have a better than even chance of forgetting them entirely.


     The first I should make note of is the passing of Chuck Tanner.  Tanner was the Pittsburgh Pirates manager from 1977-1985, winning one World Series as Pittsburgh's manager in 1979.  Tanner wasn't the type to go on a screaming tirade to his players, rather he was the optimistic sort, at times maybe too much so.  For him it was a joy to be at the ballpark every day, an attitude that is becoming less and less prevalent in pro sports across the board, where money and self promotion are king.  Sadly, for all of his positive reinforcement, the players and ownership tended to let him down time and time again, including the scandalous drug trials which ended up taking place in Pittsburgh and management going out and signing such non stalwarts as Amos Otis, who came to Pittsburgh literally with a hole in his glove.  Otis had used the same glove throughout his major league career and by the time he was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates it had an actual hole in it.  Nonetheless, Tanner retained a positive attitude during his tenure. Other managers might have benched players, or screamed from the roof tops that ownership was keeping him from fielding a competitive team, but that just wasn't Tanner's way.  Pittsburgh was lucky to have Tanner as long as they did.  

     I was watching the news this bright and early Sunday morning when what should my wandering eyes see but a burger contest.  I can't even begin to describe how angry and frustrated I get when such idiocy is passed off as news,  or that the newscast then tells you to check out the station's website, so that they might accumulate more traffic, thereby increasing advertising revenues from those companies that advertise on said site.  What really irks me about the list was that Five Guys Burgers and Fries was one of the ten finalists.  Don't get me wrong, I have been to Five Guys and haven't gotten sick from the experience, but please tell me that the city of Pittsburgh isn't so bland of a market for quality food that a fast food chain restaurant is one of the 10 best anything here.  What, the Bic Mac wasn't available?  At least that was invented here, but damn of all of the places in this city to eat the best you can come up with is fast food.  I think I just died a little inside.

     
     The 2011 CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) finished up in Washington DC and the only thing that came out of it that made sense was what Donald Trump said.  God forbid I should agree with him on anything, Trump is at best a master at self promotion, usually at the ridicule of others.  Don't believe me, look at his most recent cast of characters for his "Celebrity Apprentice" show, a bunch of B-list stars with short fuses that Trump managed to gather together more for his own amusement than anything else.  I know that weekly winners and the eventual apprentice have money donated to their charity, but if Trump was really that geeked up for charitalbe endeavors, he could have done so without the self promotion involved.  And while there is money donated to charity, the show is no doubt making Trump a few coins in his pocket as well. All of that being said, Trump was dead on the money at CPAC, where he was asked to speak, when he said that Ron Paul doesn't stand a chance to win if he is the Republican nominee.  Paul won the straw poll that was conducted by CPAC (he won the 2010 as well), but these type of groups tend to gravitate to the fringe elements of the party, rather than the realists.  If by some unknown set of circumstances Ron Paul were to be the Republican nominee in 2012 (perhaps by being the last man left on earth after the Mayan prediction of the end of the world in 2012) it would make a reelection of Obama all but a sure thing.  We would get to revisit the racist memos that came out of Paul's office 20 years ago, memos that Paul says he never wrote but didn't vet carefully enough.  Whether that is a truthful statement on Ron Paul's part or not is irrelevant, it will become an issue and in instances such as these truth is rarely considered one way or the other.  The only thing that matters is the ability to make it a talking point, and trust me, there will be many who would do just that. 

 
     Tonight is another one of those "let's pat ourselves on the back moments" with the latest rendition of the Grammy awards, where an industry that once again spent the last year marketing shit gets together to say job well done.  I will say that the only plus to this past year in music is that it was a great way to cut down on music piracy on the web, make stuff so bad that nobody will want to download it and you have solved the problem.  To make a marketable record these days you just need to do the following in some type of lyrical form;  use the word bitch or ho (or better, both), yammer about getting drunk and allude to the fact that you like to fuck.  Take these three elements and combine them in some form of a recording with any old background beat for about 3 to 4 minutes and you have yourself a winner.  Being able to carry a tune is no longer a requirement, any vocals will be so over processed that the singer will sound like The Robot from Lost in Space.

     I don't want to call it a guilty pleasure, because it isn't pleasurable so much as a leftover bad habit from my radio days, but watching Meet the Press can be painful on mornings like this.  I am not a fan of the House Majority Leader John Boehner, but David Gregory's insistence on repeating a question that was just answered is quite annoying.  Prime example was when he showed a clip from Fox News about a panel of people who were asked if they believed the President was a Muslim and a significant number raised their hands (because all Muslims are evil, but that is another issue for another time) and then asked Boehner whether he bears some responsibility in correcting the electorate on their misconceptions.  When Boehner said no, that wasn't his job it should have stopped there, instead Gregory asked the question at least three more times in hopes of getting a different answer.  Mr. Gregory, the way to marginalize the moronic portion of the electorate is not to continue to give them airplay and when you don't get the answer you want over a stupid issue opt to repeat the question, but rather to accept the fact there are always going to be stupid people out there, resist the urge to give their insane ideas a platform and move on to actual issues.

     I can tell that I am getting old when I look at Dee Dee Myers and think "you know, she is kinda hot." 

     Rugby is scheduled to be an Olympic sport again in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.  The last time that rugby was an Olympic sport was in 1924, when the United States won the gold medal.  That being said, it is safe to say since 1924 rugby has been at best an afterthought in the United States, so much so that it would make soccer seem popular by comparison.  So excuse me if I laugh a little when I see that the US 7s team is marketing a video titled "A Giant Awakens", as if simply by rugby once again being an Olympic sport, the United States team is going to defend its 1924 gold medal.  Right now, if I had a shovel and dug all of the members of the 1924 team out of the cold, cold ground, I'd give them even money to beat the current American squad.  Forget about medaling, far better it be that the U.S. 7s squad doesn't go to South America and embarrass itself.  That is about all that can be realistically hoped for. 

     I think I have pontificated enough for one day.  There is iced tea to be drunk and hockey to be watched on my day off, and that is all I realistically need on my day off. 

Multiply 365 Day 39 - The TITIT (#6) returns

One of the general plans of this blog project was not to include any of the recurring features in it. The main reason for that is by and large those features had some semblance of borrowed material to them. Whether they be the karaoke posts, hockey videos, stolen content, or even the asshats, they all reference back to something else that is already on the web. One however does not, and that would be the Things I Think I Think, or TITIT blogs. Since those are just part of my own cranial rumblings, I am comfortable enough to make an exception for them when it comes to the Multiply 365 project. So, the people that bring you the Multiply 365 project are proud to present TITIT #6.

Kudos to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who save for a loss Sunday to the Washington Capitals, have played some inspired hockey sans the talents of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Since Crosby has left the lineup with a concussion, the Penguins are 8-4-1. That being said, with Malkin out for the season, and Crosby still not back in the lineup, the roster as it is currently constituted just isn't good enough to make a deep playoff run. Perhaps Crosby will make it back in time to be a factor before the season ends (to which I am keeping my fingers crossed), but without him the Penguins go from a Stanley Cup favorite to Stanley Cup afterthought.

I know that Troy Polamalu was voted Defensive Player of the Year by the NFL, but you would be hard pressed to confirm that by his play in the postseason. The Steelers made it to the Super Bowl despite him, not because of him.

Seeing Slash on stage of the Super Bowl halftime show playing guitar while Fergie proceeded to butcher the G N R catalog with her rendition of Sweet Child of Mine makes Slash less of a master of the guitar and more just the Black Eyed Peas bitch.

Kudos to the management at US Steel who sent out a memo stating that anyone who called off sick on Sunday or Monday without just cause so that they could sit home and watch the Super Bowl would face disciplinary action and may be fired for doing so. I get it, it's a big game, and I get it in that I am a sports fan but at the end of the day it is just a game and at some point sanity has to enter into the equation. The world doesn't shut down just because you want to sit on your ass, the world will gladly move on without you. In a time where unemployment in the region hovers around 9% if you believe that a game is more important than your job, I am sure there are plenty of people out there who will more than willingly take your place.

Most ironic moment of the Super Bowl; the military did their customary fly over even though the roof on Cowboys Stadium was closed, meaning that people who had paid hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to be in attendance got to watch the flyover just like the rest of us, on TV.

As bad as the halftime show was, it still doesn't compare to Ashley Simpson at the Orange Bowl, a spectacle that was so bad that the 80,000 in attendance booed her off the stage afterward.

Major League Baseball is just around the corner, the first real sign of spring. Pitchers and catchers for the Pittsburgh Pirates are scheduled to report in 7 days to Bradenton Florida. That means there are only 8 days until the Pirates are officially removed from playoff contention.

Lastly I will say this to the State Department when it comes to the events in Egypt; Leave it alone. Far too much time and money has been spent propping up what best can be described as a psuedo-dictator in Mubarak to think that you will come in on a white horse to save the day and restore order. Credibility tends to get lost when you willingly support a leader who regularly stops on such ideals and freedom of speech, press and expression. While the policies regarding Egypt were not explicitly linked to the current administration (though it too viewed Mubarak as an ally), it was just as guilty in turning a blind eye to the events that were taking place to somehow now expect to be seen as anything less than complicit in the sufferings of the Egyptian people. Maybe when the process eventually unfolds there will be a chance to once again build bridges, but that time is not now, Now is simply the time to sit back and see the chaos and disorder that you helped foment by your previous actions or lack thereof.

Titit #5

Welcome back to another fine episode of "Things I think I think" starring less that impressive opinions from yours truly.  Truth be told I should probably be asleep right now, but because I fell asleep watching The Simpsons earlier I find myself wide awake at almost 1am, dreading the thought of venturing out into the cold outdoors in about 5 hours to go to work.  To help pass the time I figured I would go ahead and try my hand at blogging again, how that attempt actually turns out, well I will leave that for you to decide. 

While I have marketed the last few months as "The Fall of My Content" in hopes of recovering from the "The Summer of Suck", I would be remiss in stating that the fall hasn't been content for all.  fate has not smiled on one of Pittsburgh's own blogging community, a community of which I am a member if for no other reason than a) I blog and b) I live here.  beyond that I really doubt any of the greater known literary types really know I exist, let alone stop by to read the page. Then again by the looks of the globe-o-meter off to the side, not that many other people have been reading the page either, good thing I do this more for myself than for any sort of public reaction or acclaim, because then I the process would be a lot more disheartening.  But back on topic, and quickly at that, That's Church blogger Virginia Montanez and her husband suffered through a setback when their restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh caught on fire.  No word on when (or if) a reopening will be taking place, the process is in the hands of insurance people and people with far greater minds and salaries than yours truly.

Likewise I should also note the passing of Bruce Keidan, a  former local radio show host and columnist for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.  In my realm of classification there are basically three types of talk shows (though the circles are not mutually exclusive), those that entertain, those that piss people off and those that are informative.  Bruce's shows certainly fit into the first and third categories on that list and I had the opportunity, albeit briefly, to work with him during his short tenure as program director of WPTT.  It was a humbling experience for one such as myself, barely having gotten my feet wet in radio at the time, yet working with what many would consider the smartest guy in the room, often I was just hoping I didn't screw up too much.  And the job probably wasn't what he had signed on for, in many ways he was a program director with little or no say in the programming of the station, so I knew he wouldn't be long for the job.  Sadly I didn't get much of a chance to pick his brain while we worked together, we may have had three or four meetings tops before he went on to bigger and better things but as he was going out the door he pulled a handful of people aside to let us know that if they ever needed anything all they had to do was pick up the phone and give him a call.  Job references, career advice, or just emails to bitch about serving our radio overlords, he listened to them all and offered whatever assistance he could and I was one of the lucky ones he included in that list.  Many thanks Bruce, you will be missed.

So last might I didn't opt to glog the football game between the Steelers and the Ravens, and I am sorry I didn't.  The Steelers-Ravens rivalry has been one of the best in football, especially in recent years and I don't say that just because I live in Pittsburgh and the Steelers are the hometown team, but because the scoreboard and the physicality of the games bears that out.  But in the last 5 meetings between the two teams, 4 have been decided by three points or less.  The fifth you ask?  That was decided by 4 points.  This meeting was no different.  With Baltimore nursing a four point lead late, Troy Polamalu sacks Ravens QB Joe Flacco and causes a fumble, which Pittsburgh recovers and the offense scores a touchdown and Pittsburgh wins 13-10.  As for the physicality of the game, four players left the game due to injury, two of them will not play again this year.  The other two will miss at least one more game.

As much as I liked doing radio and being on the air, let me tell you there are some things about the business I really don't miss.  Take the example of The Spy, one of my favorite alternative stations, even though I am well out of their broadcast range, living here in PA while they are broadcasting in Oklahoma.  that being said, let me tell you a little story of how fucked up the business is.  The Spy originally existed years ago, but the owners of the station opted to  dump the format in favor of something that one would assume was more profitable.  That's all fair and good, and it is their right.  But whatever they tried to do on the station didn't seem to stick, so the station was put up for sale.  In steps one of the old Spy DJ's, who puts together a financial plan to purchase the station, pending an appraisal of what the property is worth.  With the deal pending he begins to program The Spy again.  The appraisal comes in and it is far less than what the owners thought they should be getting, so they back out of the deal.  But the kicker is that The Spy opts to go internet only to keep themselves on the air.  And what do the owners do now that the sale has collapsed?  They start programming the station as an alternative station under the moniker of, you guessed it, The Spy.  Never let it be said that those in the radio field are of noble spirit and deed. 

Speaking of radio, I am getting ready to take my first vacation since my departure from said medium almost two years ago.  One of the things I do not miss personally happened this past week when I received a Christmas bonus at work.  A decent bonus too ($100), when you consider what it is that I do.  What makes it more decent is that I can't remember the last time I received a Christmas bonus in radio, though I can guarantee you it wasn't in my last 5 years there.  So far at the new gig, if it can really be considered new at this point, I am two for two in the Christmas bonus department. 

I know there has been a lot of hullabaloo over the whole Wikileaks story that has come out recently, including the sexual exploits of one Julian Assange, which while good tabloid fodder has little to no bearing on whether or not he had the right to publish what was confidential information.  While I am not 100% set in stone on my opinion, I tend to believe he most certainly has the right to do so.  Truth be told, far too much attention is being paid to him in this matter, the truly guilty party is the person who gave him the information to begin with, Army Spc. Bradley Manning.  Whatever happens to Assange, Manning should be tried for treason.

What I suggested should happen in a previous blog entry has in fact happened, Pitt fired head football coach Dave Wannstedt.  here is hoping that the powers that be that are given the responsibility of finding the next football coach don't trip all over themselves looking for the next "Pitt guy" to take the reigns.  Here is a novel concept, how about just looking for the best person, rather than the parochial mentality of the best guy that had a previous connection to the university or region.

I hope you liked November, because for all of the talk of fiscal responsibility that was blathered about, it is December now and that train has passed.  Now we are left with two groups, one of which wants to extend an unfunded mandate in the form of the Bush tax cuts, the other wants to extend the benefits of a government program by tacking on another year of unemployment compensation.  Nothing says fiscal responsibility like cutting revenue and increasing spending. 

On that note, I think we will call it a wrap, because tis the season for wrapping and all that jazz.    Speaking of wrapping, if you can't afford wrapping paper that is perfectly fine with me, you can leave my present in the box or bag from the store, but please don't wrap my gift with yesterday's edition of the newspaper, that is just tacky and cheap.  If you are that hard up for cash, save the newspaper and take it to the recycling plant so you can start saving up for next Christmas, the plastic WalMart bag is just fine with me.

A little bit of everything

Saturday, November 27th

I guess I am cheating a bit here, using a larger type (16) than the default (12), and while that trick works when doing papers for school, I don't know if I need to be so worried about space when it comes to a blog, after all, it's not like this is being graded for length or something. Besides, when was the last time anyone complained here that my blogs were too short? Exactly.

Instead I am just using a larger typeface because I am using Open Office, and while it is a decent enough program for shareware, I have found sometimes that when doing ye olde copy and paste thingy, sometimes part of the letters get cut off, so I just want to make sure this is legible enough. Not King George legible, that would require 48 or 72 point font, but just enough that it is readable after the copy and pasting is done. Hopefully this will do the trick.

The other reason for Open Office is that it has a spell checker built in and if I am going to blog, given how long I have been away, far better to do it with a spell checker than for me to go back and reread this tripe. Typing it is bad enough, I shouldn't be expected to read it as well. That's your job, and last I heard you get paid handsomely for it.

Because it has been a while since I blogged, chances are that a couple of comments are going to be mashed together in this entry, not Mash-ed like that sorry social networking concept of Yahoo that lasted all of a millisecond before being rendered useless, as most Yahoo ideas are, but mashed as in I may throw in a few “Things I Think I Think” as I go. After all, plenty has occurred since my last foray into this medium, far be it from me to fail to type about those things as they come to mind. For instance.....

Titit #1 – Don't say I didn't warn you Democrats. Way back around primary season I said that the big winner in the Arlen Specter/Joe Sestak race would be Pat Toomey, because unlike Specter, Sestak had zero crossover appeal, he may get loyal Democrats to vote for him, but he had no chance of getting of getting anyone to cross party lines and pull his lever. Sure enough, during the landslide elections that took place with the Republicans taking over the majority in the House and gaining seats in the Senate, one of the losers was indeed Joe Sestak. Now Specter may or may not have won in a head to head battle with Toomey this time around, but it was just 6 years ago he beat him in a Republican primary, and he would have offered a better chance at winning than Sestak did. Don't get me wrong, Specter has shown in the past that he isn't always the most loyal of party line voters, but if having a choice between a guy who might vote with you 60-70 percent of the time or giving the seat to someone who will almost never vote on your side of the issue, Democrats would have been wise to take the 60-70 option and been happy about it, instead they get guaranteed nay votes for the next 6 years. Good job guys, real good job.

That might have been the first time this blog went political in all kind of months, not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but I suppose it is as good a place to start as any. After all, most of the other stuff I talk about is just mundane, boring as all hell, day to day stuff that happens at work, so maybe a change up was good, even if it was only for one paragraph.

I have started my Christmas shopping, probably the earliest I have gotten about it, but with so much free stuff on the web, it is just even easier for me to start now while I am at home and just doing the point and clicky thing. I managed to pick up a couple of presents from MyCokeRewards, where they have a bunch of stuff at half off on the Coke points. I finally have reached the place where I am no longer maxing out the points I can redeem on a weekly basis (120). All of the excess caps from work have been redeemed, including a bunch of Powerade caps that I save for double points day and ended up getting 240 in one week with the bonus. The last two weeks have been far slimmer pickings, 40 some points last week, and so far this week just 26. Since I am off tomorrow, I may make at least part of a day of going out and seeing if I can find a cap or two. I know I want to do breakfast again, last week was such an awesome breakfast that I need to do that again, and I need to pick up a Christmas present that I located and it is near the breakfast place, so hi ho, hi ho, it's off to breakfast I go.

Breakfast last week was part of something I mentioned in the past on the blog, where my aunt and I are going to take in a diner breakfast once a month, because we both like such breakfasts and this gives us a chance to hang out and b.s. While doing some exploring of the nooks and crannies of the region's diners. So far we have went three times, I believe when I last mentioned it we had gone to Pamela's in the Strip District for the ever so awesome banana and chocolate chip pancakes, since that time we have taken in two more diners, Jo Jo's and most recently DeLuca's. DeLuca's was just awesome, at least food wise, the service could have been better, but the food was so good. I got the hotcake special, which is your choice of pancakes (2), two eggs and meat for $6.99. I went with the blueberry pancakes and chorizo, and it was all so yummy. The pancakes may very well have rivaled those at Pamela's, and the other pieces to the meal were better. And there were so many things on the menu to choose from, that I have to make a second and maybe third and fourth trip just to take it all in. They have a breakfast pig in a blanket meal where everything is wrapped in either a crepe or a pancake, they do versions of ice cream sundaes with pancakes, mixed grill breakfasts, bionic breakfasts which include 6 eggs (my arteries are clogging just at the thought) and much more. If I get a chance I will add a photo to this blog of one of the hotcake sundaes, but for some more of the menu you can follow the link http://www.allmenus.com/pa/pittsburgh/275793-delucas-restaurant/menu/breakfast/

Hopefully that will copy and paste when the time comes, if not then I will add it late, though early experiments are not promising.

The breakfasts with my aunt haven't been the only thing on my social calendar of late. Not that I have started dating, let's not get all crazy here, it is me after all. Rather one of my friends on Facebook, Richard Goldinger, is someone that I went to high school with. Probably our most lasting memory was the night where he rolled his Camaro with a few of us in it. When the last we had hung out he was working for Alltel in Kittanning, PA many, many moons ago. Even the last time I saw him, he was seeing someone seriously, Robin, nut it was still in that dating phase. Now they are married and their oldest son is 15, so logic would dictate that it was at least 15 years ago, if not longer since we had spent any significant time together. His job took him to Ohio, compliments of the many phone mergers and changes in phone technology since then, but he messaged me on Facebook about a month ago, saying he was coming to town for the Sunday night football game between the Steelers and the Patriots and wanted to know if I would like to hook up for lunch to hang out a bit. Since they were visiting Pittsburgh, of course we had to go to Primanti's, another place that has been featured on this blog before, where I got the capacola with egg sandwich, my favorite on the Primanti's menu. And while I live here, I tend to take such places for granted and don't visit them nearly as much as I should, so it was good choice by Rich for a place to have lunch. Sadly we didn't get to catch up as much as I would have liked, they still had to go check into their hotel and get situated for the game, and getting around Pittsburgh was proving a little troublesome for them because their GPS cut out once they got into the city, so they wanted to have enough time to get find their hotel in case the GPS still wasn't working.

Sorry I took a break there, after talking about food for so long I decided that I was hungry, so off to the kitchen I went to fire up some tuna helper. Not exactly fine dining by any stretch, but I am just cooking for me, so it will suffice.

Titit #2 – Every day that Dave Wannstedt remains the Pitt football coach is a day that he is stealing money from the school. Let's not kids ourselves, this was the year that Pitt was supposed to be something. Maybe not a national title contender, but at least in a BCS game after winning the Big East. The problems started in the off season, when 4 different incidents involving Pitt players and the local constabulary showed just how little control of the team he had. This being year 6 of the Wannstedt regime, it could no longer be blamed on the fact he was using players that he didn't recruit, these were all people he deemed worthy of playing for the Pitt program. Then the season began, and a 2-3 start where the two Pitt wins came against suspect competition (New Hampshire, Florida International), while matchups on the schedule were meant to show how good Pitt may be this year (at Utah, Miami, at Notre Dame) resulted in losses, the Miami one being particularly painful, as many alumnae were in attendance and Pitt wasn't even competitive (3-31). Still, none of those games were conference games, so while Pitt was 2-3, a strong run through their Big East schedule would still get them the automatic BCS bid that comes with winning the league. And a 3-0 start in conference play, plus the rather weak competition in the conference left Pitt with a 3-0 conference mark and a two game lead in the standings, the the proverbial wheels came off the wagon, with losses in two of the next three conference games and while Pitt is not mathematically eliminated from still winning the league at 4-2 they now would need to win their last game and have Connecticut and West Virginia lose their last games in order for that to happen. This is not what was signed up for 6 years ago, when Wannstedt was coming in, saying he was going to rebuild the program to national prominence. His alleged ability to recruit better athletes has not panned out. One would be hard pressed to find a single, solitary player in the last years that chose Pitt over another big name school. And no, it doesn't count if someone picks Pitt over, say, Akron. Sure there have been a couple of players that have had nice seasons at Pitt that were unexpected, like Dion Lewis last year, but a prtogram can't be built based on getting lucky and signing guys nobody else wanted, eventually someone has to pick your school over a Florida, or Ohio State, or Penn State, and that hasn't happened under Wannstedt. Instead we see disappointment after disappointment, last year losing the last two games to miss out on a BCS bid, including the last game of the year to Cincinnati at home after having a 21 point lead, and this year blowing a two game conference lead with 4 games to play including a 35-10 loss to West Virginia at home. In 6 years Pitt has earned 0 Big East titles and at some point trips to the Humanitarian Bowl, or the Meineke Car Care Bowl can't be considered accomplishments. For all of the criticism of previous head coach Walt Harris, his last 5 teams made bowl games, including a Big East title and an appearance in the Fiesta Bowl. How good would those days look now? But as long as Wannstedt is allowed to coach the Panthers, those days are not going to be seen any time soon.

Sunday, November 28^th

Sorry, I ended up going to bed instead of finishing this blog entry, something that happens from time to time as readers of this blog well know. And worse I overslept for breakfast, at least if I wanted to go to DeLuca's. Usually if I am headed over that way I catch the 7am bus and arrive in the Strip around 7:30am. By that time many of the places in the Strip are already starting to fill up, so if I miss the first bus I run the risk of getting over there and standing in line for food, something I am not likely to do for breakfast. So instead I climbed back under the covers for another hour, the went to my corner store for a cup of coffee and headed off to Rite Aid to see what was on sale. I had a couple of things I needed as well, bread for starters, and deodorant is always a good buy, so it wasn't a wasted morning. Plus they had Christmas cards on sale, buy two boxes, get one free, so I snagged some of those as well.

That being said, I still could have snuck in breakfast in Oakland, Pamela's still hadn't had its line going out the door, due in large part to the students being on Thanksgiving break. But I opted against it, maybe because DeLuca's was too goo, maybe because I just decided to save money, I am not sure which. I know I will probably do a little more shopping for Christmas online today, I have bankrolled almost $80 in Amazon gift cards so I should be able to get a couple more free items. Plus I do have lots of other projects that I need to work on, like cleaning my apartment, getting my Christmas list together for my mom and for the blog page, finishing getting stuff squared away for my upcoming vacation and at some point finding something for lunch. So there is still lots on the docket today, besides finishing this particular blog entry.

I had mentioned that I needed $9 + for the change meter in order to pass $200 by the end of the year. While I haven't quite gotten there yet, $200 is still somewhat in play, as another $1.46 has bee accumulated since my last posting, so the new total is $192.39. I would say it is still unlikely, but then again all it would take is for one person to be careless with their money and I could be over the top, and given the public's need to be all sheeple-ish when it comes to shopping this time of year, finding money laying on the ground is more of a possibility this time of year. That brings me to …....

Titit #3 Let's stop kidding ourselves that Thanksgiving is a holiday for anything more than people to go shopping for two days. I know what the original premise was behind the holiday, but we have far since evolved beyond that, and what was once well intentioned day of giving thanks for that which we have has become a four day festival of excessiveness and greed. At what point was the meaning of the holiday switched to, hurry up and eat so we can get a good spot in line while we camp outside WalMart, Best Buy, Target, etc, so we can be the first one in the store once they open. I used to be upset that for most Thanksgivings I would end up working, whether it be my current job, or my previous one in radio but seeing what has become of the day, where it is less about giving thanks and spending time with family and more about a moronic attempt to see who can spend their money the first and fastest and now I can honestly say that there is no place I would rather be than as far away from such ass clowns as in humanly possible.

I will probably end up being distracted again for a while, I am watching the Steelers game, though I am not glogging it. Instead I am just posting score updates on my Facebook page, so you have been spared more of my sports blathering that sometimes accompanies my entries on this page. Instead all you have to look forward to is that I am still two Penguins videos behind, but when I checked yesterday the NHL channel on Youtube hadn't posted the highlight packages yet. I realize that the videos are probably annoying to some, but as I have stated previously, hockey has some weird superstitions, like playoff beards for example, and my own superstition is that since I have started posting the videos 3+ years ago the Penguins have made the Stanley Cup Finals, won a Stanley Cup and made the second round of the playoffs, so if it is working you just keep doing it. I will quit posting videos when the Penguins quit making the playoffs.

I should make note of the fact that Ed has officially left work to fly south (Florida) for the winter. Not that it means I have been left to my own devices, he has been gone one week and already I have taken two phone calls from him on work related issues. Plus I have an added problem, one I didn't anticipate but now have to deal with, that being I have been training Sammy to place orders for when I go on vacation. I made a slight mistake, I told him that since we are only getting two orders the week of Thanksgiving, make sure he ordered a little heavier to make up for it, get a couple extra things on those items that sell. Well he went a little bit order happy, leaving us with a basement full of products that I have to now sell. It should cut down on what we order for the next month or so, but I did catch a slight bit of grief for it. Oh well, if that is the worst Sammy does, I can live with it.

Before I let this blog come to a conclusion, I need to mention something, that being the most recent book I read, “Every Man Dies Alone” by Hans Fallada. The fact that I have waited this long into the blog entry to mention it means by now most of you have tuned out, but for those that haven't let me say this is by far the best book I have read this year, and maybe one of the best books I have ever read. Yes it was that good. I would label the bookma work of fiction, though it is based on a true story. There were a few too many liberties taken with the actual account to label it anything but fiction, but the story was fascinating regardless. The story mainly revolves around a couple, the Quangels, who are living in Berlin during the time of World War II and Nazi Germany. While originally not politically active, if anything they would be politically indifferent, they come to disapprove of Hitler and the Nazi party after their son is killed during the war, fighting for Germany just before the capitulation of France. Whether it is just anger at their son's loss, or a greater awareness of all of the wrongs that are being committed in the name of Germany, the Quangels decide to offer up their own little resistance campaign, consisting of dropping postcards in stairwells and buildings in and around Berlin, with messages of dissent written on them. The belief being that if others read the cards, the same sort of coming to Jesus moment that the Quangels had will be shared by others, and the postcards will be handed around to still others and slowly the movement and the resistance to the policies of Nazi Germany will fester and grow. The problem with their logic is that everyone in Germany is so paranoid about the Nazi party and the SS in particular that no one wants to be caught with one of these postcards, let alone share them with others for fear that the result will be placement in a concentration camp. So while the postcard campaign goes on for a few years, it becomes wildly ineffective, with almost all cards turned over to the authorities as soon as they are found, and eventually the Quangels make a mistake and end up being put to death for their efforts. It is a fascinating read of the paranoia that gripped Nazi Germany, where no one could trust anyone for fear of being turned over to authorities. Rarely to a do reading recommendations on this page, but this is a book where an exception is called for.

Of course the problem with me finishing a book is that I now don't have any reading material. I have a couple of books laying around the apartment, but nothing that I am all gung ho about reading. I tried picking up one the other day, but I haven't even gotten a full chapter of it read yet.

Not too shabby, I managed to get better than a page written while still watching most of the first half of the football game. Of course now I am getting to the point where foraging for food is starting to take up a large part of my brain, I can't decide if I want to cook, order in, or go pick something up. All of which would require me to once again get dressed, and I am hesitant to do that just because it requires more effort than I am willing to put forth at the moment. Maybe after the game ends I will get more motivational.

I have been tinkering with another Marlboro contest recently, “Outwit the West”, where every week Marlboro asks five trivia questions and you get points for each one you get right. Technically you can form teams of players, as many as 4 players per team, and each correct answer adds to the each member's point total. Of course I didn't form a team, I screwed up when it first started so I am flying solo in this endeavor, and I am sorry that I did, because some of the bigger prizes include such items as a notebook computer, which would be nice, not because I need one, but because it is free. Instead, given how I have done so far, and the fact there are a few weeks left, I am probably going to get somewhere around half of the points needed for that prize, but I am eyeing up what looks to be a nice set of darts that I should be able to get. They are only 115 points away and we are getting a bonus 10 points for every answer submitted the rest of the way, regardless of whether or not it is correct. That is good, because the trivia questions are not easy by any stretch of the imagination, usually I am spending the better part of an hour just looking up the answers, or at least the best guesses that are available to the questions.

There was the distraction I warned you about. The football game went into overtime before Pittsburgh won, 19-16. I even got some good fantasy news out of the game. I have Steve Johnson, a wide receiver for Buffalo, on my roster and have been using him occasionally as my flex player in our league, but left him on the bench today. All he did was drop 6 passes, including what would have been a game winning touchdown pass in overtime. Far better to leave that type of display off of my game day roster.

I also took some time to spend some of my Amazon gift card money on a couple of Christmas presents, nothing major, just another gift for my mom and one for her husband. I was browsing some of the specials that are on Amazon and found a couple of things that were on sale for 50% off, and since I bought two, my bill was over $25 so they throw in the shipping and handling for free if I am willing to wait a couple of extra days. Not a problem, I have a few weeks to play with yet. With all of that out of the way I walked over to the Cuban place and got a sandwich and fries so I didn't starve. Then again if anyone has seen my stomach recently I am sure they would say starvation is not a problem with which I suffer.

Well I should probably wrap this up. My first attempt at getting this to copy and paste was a hit and miss proposition, the photo didn't copy and paste with the text, so I will have some work to do before this is officially finalized. Plus I have gotten myself into another money saving mess here that I am still tinkering with. I have been using an application on Facebook called Hotspot, where as you complete offers you are awarded cash, but you can only cash out when you reach $5 or more and then it is credited to a Paypal account. Mostly the offers I do are just watching videos where you earn anywhere between .03 and .10 per video. But as I was checking out some of the other offers on there just recently I saw that they were awarding $1.10 for any album purchase on Amazon of $5 or more. Funny thing is Amazon just a couple of days ago issued a code for $3 off of MP3 purchases. So now I am getting $1.10 for spending $2. Add to that I still have $40 in free money from Swagbucks in my Amazon account so no real cash has left my hand. So all told, I just purchased “The Very Best of Prince” for .90. Now I have the job of burning it to cd, which isn't all that bad, I know I have a disk or two around here some place, but that is going to take up some more of my time this evening and I really don't want to turn this into a three day blog, so I will just stop now.

Things I think I think #4

More much ado about nothing.  A mosque may be built near Ground Zero and of course there are some (quite a few actually) who are upset about the prospect.  So apparently freedom of religion for some only exists if it is their preferred religion and damn everyone else.  Far more embarrassing should be the fundamental question that it took less than 5 years to build the World Trade Center and yet here we are 9 years later with little to show for the rebuilding effort.  Newt Gingrich has been on TV saying that nobody would expect a synagogue or a church to be built in Mecca?  Really, is the religious intolerance of Saudi Arabia now the gold standard that America should follow? 

Don't say I didn't warn you, but when I suggested earlier this year that the numbers didn't back up the Pittsburgh Pirates record, which even then was under .500 but relatively respectable given 17 consecutive years of losing.  Well the numbers have since more than caught up with them, as they now sport the worst record in Major League Baseball (39-78) and have been outscored by 231 runs going into tonight's game.  The Baltimore Orioles, who sport the second worst record  (41-77) and the second worst run differential, have been outscored by 182.  And don't forget that as bad as the Orioles are, their division has 5 teams, and the 4th place team (Toronto) is 7 games over .500, by comparison the competition in Pittsburgh's division isn't nearly as difficult, with 3 of the remaining 5 teams sports losing records.

It was only a preseason game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Detroit Lions but something that may prove problematic, the offensive line looks questionable at best.  When the starters were in the game, the Detroit Lions defensive line spent a large portion of time in the Steelers backfield.  This wouldn't be as big a concern, save for the fact the team has allowed 195 sacks in the last 4 seasons and it looks like history has a chance of repeating itself for a 5th year.

So when did baby strollers get all tricked out?  I seem to remember them as basically being a cloth seat with four wheels attached and a sort of seat belt to keep the toddler from falling out.  Now they are all jacked up, with giant tires and chrome spinny things on the wheels, am/fm radio, side view mirrors, tinted windows.  No joke, I was at work today and I saw one that I swear would have occupied a regular lane of traffic. 

Many thanks to the people at Channel 59.  As some of you know, I have decided to be too cheap for cable TV, instead relying on regular TV and my computer for my TV watching pleasure.  With the advent of digital TV, even the local stations have added extra digital channels.  Usually the content on these channels is suspect at best, though I have mentioned previously that I like what Channel 11 (WPXI TV) has done with a secondary channel, carrying the Retro Television Network.  Time to add to that list with Channel 59, WBGN.  Things is even with one channel, 59 had less than stellar programming.  A few shows that are worth a peek, but mostly just infomercials.  That being said, they managed to get three additional digital channels.  I can't say that I know how digital channels are handed out by the FCC, and technically I don't know what goes into establishing them, but 59 with its weak signal and small coverage area seemed to be the last station that I would think would get 3 additional channels.  Yet they did, and for the longest time it was just three additional channels running infomercials, not all that different than the main channel.  Then a funny thing happened, they took the last one, 59-4, and dumped the infomercials in favor of the Universal Sports Channel.  Universal Sports is a small time outfit tied to NBC, but watching them they are a lot like a young ESPN.  Sure, there are lots of repeats of programs, but in is almost 24/7 programming of things like gymnastics, volleyball, track and field, swimming, sailing, ping pong, etc.  Just an eclectic mix of sports, like I said, not unlike the early days of ESPN, when they would run darts, Australian Rules Football, just anything they could get the broadcast rights to.  I am not saying that Universal is the next ESPN, but I am saying that I like that some sports that otherwise may not get on TV, save for weekends, are on all the time now.

There are times when I loathe being right.  The most recent was in my recent fantasy football draft, where I got stuck with quarterbacks that were so bad (Jay Cutler, Jason Campbell) that I went to the free agent wire to see what was available only to find the highest rated QB was Brett Favre.  On one hand he is better than anything I have, on the other we are now in season #4 of the worst sports drama on TV, the "Will Brett Retire?" show, where prognosticators delve into the Favre psyche to ascertain whether he will play this coming season.  Understanding that Favre is an attention whore and little more, I went ahead and scooped him up expecting him to show up at some point in Minnesota Vikings training camp.  Well yesterday was that day, and I suppose I am smarter for it, after all, nobody in my league actually drafted him, but by the same token I am so sick of his melodrama that if someone came crashing through the Vikings offensive line in Week #1 and snapped Favre's spine in half it may very well ruin any chances I have for a successful season yet I may still find glee in such a moment.

During GW Bush's term in office it was fascist, under Obama the term is socialist and if ever in doubt there is always constitution.  What these words have in common is that they are all what I would call "shut up" words, words that are thrown about by lazy debaters who think that as soon as they get to the requisite buzzword, all conversation should be ended and the point ceded.  Under Bush, anytime the opposition found a policy with which they disagreed, the policy was thereby described as fascist.  Under Obama I think we have all seen socialist bandied about, especially in the health care debate, nevermind that many of our allies have similar health care structures.  And of course when they thought the cause was just, they had no problem with our allies putting their blood and treasure in harms way, and the mocking term "socialist" was conveniently left out of the equation.  And the ultimate is constitution, or more appropriately, unconstitutional as in the minute I disagree with something I can just shout it is unconstitutional and like a magic fairy, then wave my wand and taadaa, it is so.  I saw one of these videos the other day where a person was questioning the health care legislation under the guise that it was unconstitutional, as it violated the 13th Amendment and after posing her question to her representative, Pete Stark of California (who made some noise about his response to the question) I had to laugh and ask just how fucking stupid was the question, as health care has nothing whatsoever to do with the 13th Amendment, which for those not in the know, abolished slavery.  But because the questioner used the buzzword "unconstitutional" even though completely out of context, all of the sheeple in the crowd applauded like this derelict had just discovered fire.  Sure there are issues with health care including whether it would fall under the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution or whether forcing the public to buy into private insurance would violate the Commerce Clause, but none of that really has to do with slavery.  The sooner we weed out the morons who bandy about words just for the sake of killing debate as opposed to enhancing it, the better off we will all be.