Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Things I can do without in 2009

I don't make resolutions per se, at least not based on any particular calendar date, so anyone stopping my looking for some sort of confessional to all of the sins I plan on abdicating from my day to day living in 2009 can just move along, there is nothing for you to see here.  That being said, there are some things I can do without in 2009, and the sooner they are gone, the happier I will be.  Feel free to add you own in the comments section.

 

1) The International Star Registry - Can there be a bigger scam.  pay some schuck money and he will name a star after someone.  How is this not the pet rock revisited?  It is not like you get mineral rights to a star gifted to you, provided we ever land there.  Nor do you have say over potential colonization or anything cool like that. rather you get nothing, and you pay for it.  How highly unoriginal.

2) NBC - Can someone blow this network up already?  Another run of Fat Camp, this time with the fattest contestant ever, Yay to that.  Also the oldest couple ever on Fat Camp.  Didn't Richard Simmons already cover this is Sweating to the Oldies?  Jay Leno will be on 5 nights a week at 10pm?  He isn't funny now, how is moving his show up where more people can see his unfunniness a good thing?  Momma's Boys - 3 relatively good looking guys pick between 30 relatively attractive women, but the men are so weak willed that they have to drag their moms along to determine who they should end up with?  These are people who definitely ended up taking their sister to the prom.  Really, NBC should just give up if this is what they are going to offer as far as programming. 

3) The Snuggie - A blanket with sleeves?  Don't we call these robes?  Oh, I'm sorry, the opening is in the back, so it is more like something from Obi wan Kenobi's closet.  Yes, I have often laid awake at night saying, you know, this comforter would be so much cooler with sleeves in it.  What's next, the Snuggie wife beater, where you can still stay warm and yet your hands are free to smack your woman around a little.  Wait, we call those shirts, nevermind.

4)  Annoying grocery store shoppers - Nothing is worse than trying to navigate an aisle in the grocery store to find some fat ass is bent over spying some food she can most definitely live without, meanwhile parking her carriage in the middle of the aisle so that no one else can get past.  I am opting for the Star Trek approach this year, and initiating ramming speed.

5)  2008 - Okay, I don't know about the rest of you, but 2008 pretty much sucked here and I would rather not relive it in 2009.  I'd rather just wipe the dry erase board clean and start from scratch if that is okay.

6)  Nancy Grace - If ever there was a self righteous voice on TV that almost made me want to root for the felons, this would be it.  Her holier than thou approach and ability to overblow even the most mundane of facts into more that what they are just annoys the hell out of me.  Prime example her show has been focusing on the Casey Anthony case, where Casey is accused of killing her daughter Kaylee.  Don't get me wrong, I think Casey is guilty as hell and probably did it simply so her daughter wouldn't interrupt her time partying with friends.  That being said, every night ad nauseum (emphasizing the naseum part) we are treated to such astute analysis as "Casey didn't cry in court today.  Why didn't she cry for her dead baby?"  Or "Casey was brought to court today in shackles." (Which by the way, they tend to do when you are incarcerated.)  I don't mind someone going over the relevant facts of a case or updating what of merit transpired in the courtroom (Court TV used to be really good at this sort of thing.)  but the uselessness of what she focuses on makes her program unbearable to watch.

7)  Cold weather - I know I live in a most inadvisable position to bitch about the cold, but damn it if global warming is coming I wish to hell it would hurry up.   I want beach front property damn it, and I need the ice caps to melt for that to actually happen.  That being said, there is an interesting hypothesis surrounding global warming/cooling that actually received the tacit support of one Albert Einstein, one that involves the actual shifting of the poles.  Allow me to elaborate as best as my feeble mind can.  Presumably the continents are all on plates, and those plates to a certain degree move, so that the actual surface of the planet is not anchored in place.  The theory has it that what may have happened, and contributed to the similarities in mythos in various otherwise unrelated cultures is that the poles actually shifted,.  Take for instance a balloon that is being hit by a constant stream of water, when the weight on the top spot of the ballooon gets too great it turns, it shifts, moving the previous wet spot to the side and exposing a brand new dry spot to the stream of water.  Likewise, the theory states that the weight of the ice on the poles became too great, causing the crust of the earth to shift, which in turn meant the ice caps as they were melted, contributing to the flooding stories and aiding in separating the continents, and creating brand new poles where ice began to reform. Peoples that at one time were able to communicate became separated and a sort of great unlearning took place.  Stuff like pyramid design, which is featured in many cultures but no one can explain how or why is knowledge that was lost as the peoples of the earth became more separated and that knowledge was no longer needed.  I know you may ask yourself, how can a culture forget something.  It is easy really, as the knowledge is no longer needed, the knowledge no longer gets passed down to the poiint where it is forgotten.  A current example would be to ask a kid these days to use a rotary phone.  You'll have a 50/50 chance that they will stare at it with a glazed look on their faces.  Liekwise, how many readers of this blog work an abacus on a regular basis?  Certainly we have tools that can do mathematics, so the need for a abacus is no longer required, so the ability to use it becomes forgotten.   The premise does sound iffy I admit, but it does explain why many plants and animals excavated in the now tundra region are flash frozen, those regions quickly became polar regions with the shifting of the earths crust.  Just something to think about in a blog that rarely makes you think.  Onward please.

8)  Bicyclists - By and large I have no disadin for bicycles, nor a love for automobiles, given I am a frequenter of public transit myself.  That being said, somewhere in our past we opted to treat bicycles as vehicles, allowing them to share the road with cars and trucks.  A big move to be sure, but the cyclists want the best of both worlds, and for me that should relegate them back to the sidewalks where they belong.  If you are on the road on a bicycle, then you should obey the rules of the road.  I can't count the number of times I have seen cyclists blow through stop signs/red lights, cut inbetween cars, ingore signaling turns and just out and out create a hazard that doesn't need to be on the road.  If most cyclists were responsible, this wouldn't be an issue, but most aren't.  Bicyclists may be eco friendly and what not, but they are also the most inconsiderate, law breaking people using the roads today, so the best thing to do is get them off of the roads entirely.

Okay, enough with my rantings, feel free to submit some of your own.

 

There isn't an adequate title for what I am about to write

Saturday

Well, might as well start off 2009 with a change meter update. I didn't make it to $40 before the new year began, as I have only found 5 cents since the last posting, leaving the change meter stuck at $39.98. That, however, might be the only bad thing to report.

I should note, all of the things you have either come to love or loathe about the page will be back for 2009. I have every intention of doing a brand new Neverending thread, as soon as I finish off a book this year. I still have four to add to the 2008 version,. I just have been incredibly lazy about doing so. Ask Matt Anything will also come back, though I think rather than a blog entry I am just going to post it on the calendar instead, where it will be much easier to reach. Of course Asshats and Karaoke Fridays will also be back, just because I like doing them. And Blunt Force Trauma will also be back, I have two now that I want to do, as opposed to before when I couldn't think of anything. Multiply has informed me that BFT 10.0 is lost, so it will have to be recreated, and BFT 11.0 is swishing around in my cranium as well, I just have to get up the venom required to type them out.

I did start the new job on Friday, and I can honestly say that I never thought I would be this close to a jizz mopper. Not that I am mopping floors, or that I have opted for a career in the porn industry, but the business right above the newsstand is one of those porno peep show places, so technically the first sentence is correct, at least from a proximity perspective.

Really though, I have just worked two days, hardly enough time to get a real liking or disliking for the job. And so far I have just worked from 7am-3pm, not particularly difficult shifts. It is kind of neat to actually be working downtown, a first for me, and it is something to get to work before the city really wakes up and just kind of watching it come to life as the morning progresses.

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

Monday night/Tuesday monring

We all know what the dotted line means by now, I have walked away from the blog and come back to pontificate yet again. I wish blogging was more like sex. Then again, one of two things would occur, either the police would break down my door to find me all withered away, laying in front of my computer amidst a puddle of my bodily fluids, or I would be able to finish a blog entry in two minutes and still have time to microwave a hot dog.

Aren't you glad I came back for that description? Sometimes it is a almost worth asking for a refund on the price of admission around here.

Well, since I last left the blog I can say that I am a winner. Hockey wise that is, as my team went 5-3-2 this past week. I can't remember the last time I posted a winning week, so uncork the champagne kiddies, the Argonauts are back, and no longer in last place.

I did the third day of newstand work so far. The new store that was supposed to open today hasn't, there are some things that still need set up. I really haven't learned all that much since my first day, just doing a lot of the same old stuff. Not that there isn't a lot for me to learn, there is plenty I haven't been taught yet, but for now they have kept me solely on register duty. I still haven't made it on the schedule yet, I am just coming in when they tell me to, if they tell me to. I was not told to come in for Tuesday, which is fine, there are a few things I need to do anyway, so I am not going to force the issue. I have some pretty big errands to run tomorrow, most of which are career related.

Carol, who I used to ride into work with at the radio station, informed me that she had spoken to Marshall Adams, the news director at KDKA AM and he said that they may be looking for a radio producer and that I should give him a ring. Well being all computer geeky like I am, I just emailed him instead. Turns out he isn't even the guy that hires the producers for KDKA, but he did forward along my resume to those that do. As an added bonus, he saw on my resume that I had sat in for Lynn a few times, and while he has little to do with the producers that are hired, he does have a hand in hiring the on air talent so he wanted a demo of my on air work. I sent him a quick show segment that I had done with Jon Delano, but he wanted more audio, so I am going to put together a couple of CDs of my work and drop them off on Tuesday.

Tuesday is also a radio jobs fair at Duquesne University, so I have to update my resume and make some copies of it so I can drop them off with other radio stations around Pittsburgh. Don't get me wrong, I am working and in this day and age that is good, but I am not doing anything career related and the sooner I can get back into that field, the happier I will be.

I did get my unemoployment card from the great state of Pennsylvania. Mind you, they still haven't put the money on it for the two weeks I was off of work yet. And with me not knowing if I will be working full time or part time at the newsstand, it would be nice if they would get about actually compensating me for the two weeks I had off.

I have been tinkering with Diablo 2 again. Maybe it was seeing my cousins playing WOW online while I was on vacation, but I have hopped into the online option and started playing. I have rolled up 14 levels pretty quickly playing a druid. First time I have really tinkered with that character and my goodness, it is like having a walking army going with you. Usually I conjure up 4 wolves, a creeping vine, my gift archer (from completing a quest) and a spirit that all run with me while I am out fighting. There is very little yet that has stood in my way as far as combat is concerned, I am like Sherman on the march to Atlanta, just leaving destruction in my wake.

I finished off the Neverending Thread of 2008 and I am about a dozen or so pages away from starting the Neverending Thread of 2009. Since I last spoke about my reading habits and how lazy I have been in that regard, I have actually forced my way forward through the book I was reading to the point I am now just about done. Plus I fired up the old B&N gift card and the Visa gift cart the other day and bought a couple of more books (as well as a 2009 Dilbert desk calendar). I have been spoiling myself of late in that regard, I used some of my WalMart cash to by a printer for the computer and have used gift cards for cool things like groceries and stuff. I think I officially have enough food in my house where I can hole up for quite a while now, if the need should arise. That being said, one of the perks of my newstand gig is that I can buy whatever I want in the shop at a 30% discount and rather than cash, they just put it on a charge sheet and take it out of my paycheck.. It is tempting, since we do get fresh sandwiches and some cool stuff in every day (we are almost mini grocery store like in our selection) but I am wary of walking down that path, because once I start charging stuff, I may never stop. I have seen some of the charge sheets some of the employees have done, and it looks like they are working for free. I will just stick with my coffee or fountain drinks (which are free for me) and not get all caught up in throwing my money away, though the notion that I can charge my smokes now is an appealing one. I will never be out of cigarettes again. As the song goes "Bring on the cancer stick, I know if I can hit it once, I can hit it twice".

Bored to tears yet? Hope not, because there is no crying in blogging, but I will save you before your eyes start welling up and call it a nite, after all, I still have to print up a resume and burn a couple of CDs, so my computer is not quite ready for bed yet, even if I am. Nite all.

Winter Classic 2009

While I tend to limit those hockey videos that don't involve the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Winter Classic is becoming one of those things that a professional sports league gets right from time to time.  The premise is pretty simple, one game a year is selected off of the schedule, usually around the first of the year, and unlike most games, where the sport is played indoors in various arenas throughout the United States and Canada, this game is played on an outdoor rink, amidst the elements.  The game is both a tribute to many of the players, who got their start playing hockey outdoors on frozen lakes and ponds, and a spectacle that is unique unto the hockey season.  You may remember I posted last years game, between the Buffalo Sabres and the Pittsburgh Penguins, a 2-1 Pittsburgh win in a shootout while snows was falling on Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo.  The elements were kinder this year, and the venue was Chicago's Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, but the scene was still pretty cool and with better weather the scoring was up just a tad, Detroit won 6-4.

And what may be nothing more than a statistical anomaly, Ty Conklin, the goaltender for Detroit, has now started all three Winter Classic Games, as he was the goaltender for Edmonton in the first ever game between Edmonton and Calgary, he was in net for Pittsburgh last year and year three he was in goal for Detroit.

With that little piece of useless trivia out of the way, watch some outdoor hockey, it's good for you.

 

 

 

Our inspiration (the title for this blog)

Picture Window theme. Powered by Blogger.

Where we've been