Author: Thom

I guess it’s true (well, I am 50%), but I’m still surprised the quiz got it right.

You are a Dubliner.

What’s your Inner European?
brought to you by Quizilla

(Thanks to Malina)

Have you noticed that regular people on the news don’t speak normally anymore? Once someone has a microphone shoved in front of them, they seem to act like watching the last 3 seasons of “Law & Order” has given them formal legal training.

Last night I saw this story on “Fox News” – not on purpose, mind you, I was just too lazy to change the channel after “House” – about a woman who had been sexually accosted by her doctor. Now, this is a very serious story. The guy locked the office door and grabbed her breasts. That’s just not right. But I found myself questioning the credibility of the woman because of the way she spoke. She very quickly mentioned the resultant psychological damage and other side effects as if she were a lawyer. Who uses words like that after a guy just grabbed them?

I just don’t get it – even true victims are starting to come off as professional ones.

I joined Replay – the Sam Goody/Suncoast bonus points club – three years ago. One of those days when you find a bunch of things you want in the store all at once, so I earned way more back in rewards than it cost me to join that evening alone. Overall, it worked well for me (and Mark, and Mike, and Brian and all the others that joined). It certainly helped that we had a Sam Goody right in town with a pretty cool staff. We always had a blast going up on Triple Point days and hanging out with whats-his-name, talking about Star Trek, games, classic rock, and his hot co-worker with the “fan club.”

But over the past year, the usefulness has dwindled. Soon I found myself going out of the way to find things to buy there so that I could push my points up to the next level. When you find yourself staring at the first season of Dawson’s Creek thinking, “Hey, that might be worth enough point to half pay for itself,” you know it’s time to let go. They just sent me an e-mail warning me that my membership is about to expire (January 31st, to be exact – way to keep on top of the e-mails, folks). Oh well, I missed out on using my last certificate (only 5 bucks), but at least I only left 168 points in my account (10,000 points = $5).

Right now I’m wondering how that company even stays in business. Come on, Best Buy offered Ju-on for $15.99 when it came out last week. Now it’s up to the regular price of $19.99. What does Suncoast have it for? $24.99! I just can’t stomach going in there anymore, hoping to find the one DVD that will make it worth it for me; looking for that one last fix to get me to the net certificate.

So I’m finally free of my addiction. I guess it’s time to check out Best Buy’s Reward Zone…

Apparantly there’s a small difference between police procedures in LA and those in Sand Lake, MI. For example, when a minor takes a car for a joyride in Sand Lake, the police will follow him to make sure nothing goes wrong. In LA, however, the police will simply gun him down.

Can you believe tha LAPD has such a bad rep?

Ok, let’s get through this as quick and painlessly as possible. The Eagles lost in the Super Bowl. It sucks. I’m disappointed. But I’m moving on. It was a hell of a game, and that almost hurts more. Losing by only three points when your team makes so many mistakes really gets to you. I had trouble getting to sleep at first, because I just kept running through the blown opportunities at the beginning of the game. Just a single conversion in the red zone early on – even a field goal – would have completely changed the game. That’s going to gnaw at me for a while, so imagine what it does to the players and coaches.
Continue reading “Over and done”

Today’s the day. I’m totally pumped. It will all be decided in a matter of hours. Unfortunately, my plans didn’t quite work out as planned. I had hoped to go to Philly for the game, but bars would be too expensive (Chickie ‘n Pete’s wanted $125/person!) and probably no the most fun for Lisa and I. Work has been so crazy lately that I never got around to making the plans I should have – hanging out with my family for the game. By the time I made the effort, everybody had their plans elsewhere. Instead I’ll just have to enjoy the game here at home in beautiful Hi-Def glory.

Hey, I love me Dad (and he did teach me the game), but I’m still looking forward to the crisp picture I’ll be getting courtesy of Comcast.

This weekend has been a big Philly sendup for me. Yesterday morning I introduced Lisa to the glories of Pork Roll. Of course it was Taylor, and straight from the log – the way it was meant to be. Then we headed south to find a sporting goods store that admits teams other than the Yankees exist (have I mentioned how much the NYC area sucks). I picked up a championship shirt to go under my jersey. After putzing around Princeton Forrestal Village we stopped by my parents’ and went out to dinner with my Mom. I love that my Mom will end up picking a pub for dinner. On our way home we stopped by the 24-hour Acme and picked up a “One” shirt (which Lisa is now wearing). My Mom also provided us with some scrapple to start our Philly Super Bowl day. Mmm mmm!

Now I’ve got the DVR fired up, some Yuengling in the fridge, kielbasa defrosting, and a big ol’ bag of Sour Cream and Onion Herrs chips to help me cheer on an Eagles victory. If all goes well, I’ll be on Broad Stree come Tuesday morning.

Once this is all over, I’m sure that this space will return to it’s regularly scheduled blog…

I finally got a new pair of black shoes last night. One of those amazingly quick and easy shopping endeavours. The goal was black shoes for work with a side order of Chick-fil-A. Of course the nuggest came first, and then Lisa and I sought out the Journeys, only to realize that I mixed up which mall it was in. That left me a tad disappointed, but Lisa would not give up and suggested that we check out Macy’s. I went along, although I didn’t have much hope.

After searching through many pairs of dress shoes, I finally decided to try on a pair of Timberlands. Not exactly what I wanted, but they looked different. Unfortunately, they did not have them in the size of my abnormally large feet. Ugh. They did, however, have a pair of Rockports around my size in black leather. The floor model was only displayed in brown nubuck, so I never would have guessed – well, if I had any patience for dealing with sales people I might have guessed. Lo and behold, they fit. It took me about 15 seconds to make a decision, and away we went. The right one is feeling a little tight (like a said, I got big uns!), but otherwise I’m satisfied. So the real question remains, what the hell took me so long?
Continue reading “What was taking me so long?”

Once again, I missed the anniversary of this blog. Not that my silly first post was much of an introduction to the blogosphere. But now that I have entered year three, it’s time to let go of some drafts that I’m just not going to get around to. Before I delete them, here are the topics that never were:

• I used to love driving – There’s enough interesting material started here, that I’ll probably save the draft and start reconstructing it. The premise for this entry was all of the morons I am forced to share the road with have ruined my love for driving. A topic that could be revisited after almost any of my daily commutes.
• “For who? For what?” – Using the famous Rickey Watters quote (from when he was with the Eagles), I wanted to discuss our reactions to the tragedies of others. When you comfort somebody over a loss, are your words really there to comfort them, or you?
• Privacy in the age of blogging – This one I’ll definitely be keeping. I plan on turning it into an article of sorts, as it no longer fits as just a post. The subject matter was inspired by the blog readme I’ve seen various sites link to.
• Are you a noun or verb? – Kurt spoke about his photography and whether it made him a photographer or not. You might as well look at what he said, as I doubt I could elaborate much more.
• “I’m very tired” – I started writing this post after speaking with Sara Jane at her father’s wake. It was difficult and painful to work through, and eventually I gave up. Although the subject matter of death and its effects are always relevant, it’s time to abandon this entry.
• The choices we make – I think I might finish this story about helping a stranded motorist off later today and finally post it. A couple months overdue, the point was not to praise myself for my own actions, but to encourage others to make similar decisions.

Not too shabby. This has helped me clean out the admin side of things, and will perhaps speed up my work on other areas of the site.

I keep forgetting to point out this gem that Kris sent me: Alien Loves Predator. What happens when a brutal, human-hunting, heavily-armed alien meets up with a brutal, human-hunting, heavily-armored alien? They decide to hang out in NYC, of course. I’ve only started reading it, but the first two strips alone are some of the funniest things I’ve ever read.

Ever wonder why most people don’t get cricket? Check out the lead to this article on a match between Australia and the West Indies:

Fast bowler Brett Lee took four wickets for 38 runs as the West Indies collapsed to 196 all out in reply to the hosts’ 269 for eight from 50 overs.

I cannot even fathom what any of that might mean. Not to knock a sport I really don’t know, but someone lost by 73 runs? How is that even possible?