tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87480182202851340612024-03-05T00:20:37.656-06:00Explosive AmnesiaBrace yourself. For when I type these words you may well suffer an attack of explosive amnesia!Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.comBlogger267125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-70243898253877962362016-11-04T09:03:00.000-05:002016-11-04T09:03:11.914-05:00World ChampionsWell, they did it.<br />
<br />
Did I ever think it would happen? That is hard to say. Of course, when you think about it, the odds of the Cubs not winning a World Series over the course of a lifetime has to be pretty low, but it happened to my grandfather and my dad, so who am I to think that I am so special? <br />
<br />
My relationship with the Cubs is special. Not special in the way that would make a great story on the news, but special to me. My dad was obsessed with the Cubs. From the day I was born, it was clear that I would never be able to avoid being a Cubs fan. Born in suburban Chicago with a die-hard dad? No chance.<br />
<br />
Then we moved to Texas when I was starting first grade. This would likely kill any chance of fandom for almost any kid. Proximity builds fans more than anything. Just ask the thousands of newish Texas Rangers fans after 2 World Series appearances. A lot of these people didn't even know what baseball was a few years ago, now they are buying personalized license plates and wearing customized jerseys.<br />
<br />
As much as I credit my dad for instilling a love of baseball and the Cubs in me, there is one other entity that receives equal, if not more, credit. Those three little letters that every Cub fan knows: WGN. The superstation from Chicago, for whatever reason, had the foresight to get themselves placed on the basic cable tier of all American cable companies, guaranteeing that the Cubs would be seen across the land. Combine that with the propensity for the Cubs to have more day games than anyone else (they didn't even have lights at Wrigley until 1988) and you have a sure-fire formula for creating masses of rabid fans.<br />
<br />
I remember coming home from school, day in and day out, and the Cubs were on TV. My formative baseball years were around the success of the 1984 version of the Cubs, with Ryne Sandberg, Bobby Dernier, Ron Cey, Leon Durham, Sarge Matthews, Rick Sutcliffe, Larry Bowa, Keith Moreland and Jody Davis. Even now, I can recite those lineups by heart. I would drop my backpack on the floor, fire up the TV, and watch. Hell, I even pretended I was part of it. I would throw a square pillow on the floor, and if any Cub were on first base, I would lead off with him, diving back to the bag if the pitcher threw over.<br />
<br />
I don't recall the heartbreak of the '84 season, though. Either I was on another planet, or I blocked it out. I don't recall dying at the Cubs losing to the Padres in the NLCS. Nothing...blank space in my brain. But I was only 8. Every year, coming home from school and they were on: constant baseball for a burgeoning baseball fan. I played baseball too, and I loved the game. I had trouble concentrating at the end of a school day when I knew there was a baseball game to be played that evening. I loved the ritual of getting ready for the game, hopping on my bike to ride down to Bartlett Park in Burleson, TX...dirt infields and all. I loved getting a ticket at the end of the game which would get you a soda or candy bar, your choice (we always went for the "suicide", which was a combination of all of the soda flavors).<br />
<br />
Remember now, this was in suburban Fort Worth, TX. I didn't have any real friends at the time who were Cub fans...just me and my Dad. Then, when I was 11, my parents got a divorce and my Dad and I were separated from day to day contact. He started a life with a new family, and we just didn't have the level of contact that we had before....but there was always the Cubs. Always. I could pick up the phone, and that is all we would talk about. Jerome Walton, Tuffy Rhodes...any big news was worthy of a phone call.<br />
<br />
When I got to junior high school, I was extremely fortunate to gain a group of friends from church and the tennis team, and to my surprise, there were some Cubs fans amongst them! I still remember meeting my friend Sean, and when he showed me that he had a pair of shorts with the Cubs logo on them, my head almost exploded. There were people out there like me! People who lived as far away from Chicago as you could imagine (at that age) who were also fans. Friends like Ryan who lived and died with the Cubs' every game. Friends like Kevin who lived in Iowa before moving to Texas, so he rooted for the Iowa Cubs. As we grew up together, through high school, college, marriage and death, the Cubs were always there for us. Some of them married other Cubs fans, and now I had a real stable of friends who I could share in my joy and misery.<br />
<br />
My dad and I grew further and further apart, talking less and less, but there was always the possibility of news right around the corner. The Cubs signed Alfonso Soriano! They hired Lou Piniella! We wouldn't talk for weeks, then one day, the phone would ring and we would fall right back into discussing the latest news of the Cubs. He moved to Chicago for a while, and then back to Texas to be closer to his first family's kids, and we were able to get closer again. That went on for years and years. Heck, I still remember him calling me, freaking out that Starlin Castro hit a 3 run homer in his first game. We knew we were on to something there.<br />
<br />
During this time, I got married, had a couple of kids, and just lived life. I was lucky to find a woman who, even though she had ZERO prior interest in baseball, was willing to wear hats, shirts, towels, bikinis, sunglasses...anything she could find with a Cubs logo, she bought. Not because she loved the team, but because she loved me. All the while suffering right along side of me. Now, as a bit of an aside, I can be a terrible person to be around when the Cubs are playing. I am not abusive or anything, but I do get into the games quite a bit. Worse than that, I am a HUGE believer in the superstitions and karmic circle of the game. Never tell me the Cubs are winning....never say, "Boy, it would be great if he hits a home run here!"...It makes me crazy. I have lived too long with the Cubs to put up with that. My friend Sean and I used to joke that his wooden coffee table would explode from all of the built up bad karma that had been purged by "knocking on wood".<br />
<br />
She always stuck with me. Road trips to see the Cubs AAA team in Austin, TX. Buying me playoff tickets in 2005, only to have the game not happen because the Cubs were swept by Arizona. Hats, shirts, sunglasses...anything with a Cubs logo, she couldn't help herself, and that is everything I could have asked for. Someone to share in the ups and downs of fandom, but would never judge me for my lifelong passion.<br />
<br />
After a few years of marriage, I tried to explain to her what the Cubs meant to me. It was hard to put into words...I asked her to name one thing that she had been passionate about since she was 8 years old. Naturally, she couldn't do it, but that is OK. That is why it is so hard to quantify what sports means to us. The roots of passion go very, very deep and quite a few people can't understand it. It isn't the same as having a child, or growing old with a loved one. But those scars run DEEP, and they never quite go away. I look forward to growing older with her, because she completes the circle of my life that I never even knew existed when my fandom was getting started.<br />
<br />
Then, the inevitable happened, and my dad passed away in 2013, just a few days before the season started. There was a huge hole in my heart, as I had lost the one person in my life who truly got me. Even three years later, my first instinct when I hear exciting news about the Cubs is to pick up the phone and call him. My dad joined that very popular club of Cubs fans who never got to see their team make it to the promised land....and I won't lie that I was terrified I would join him at some point.<br />
<br />
Last year, when the Cubs made it to the NLCS, I burst into tears. All of those years of pent up frustration, anger, joy, madness, etc. all came out of me all at once. It killed me that my dad wasn't there with me. My daughter, 13 at the time, looked at me..."Are you crying?!". Again, there is no way that she could understand that in one moment, all of the phone calls, late night discussions, heartbreak...it all came back to me in an instant. The Cubs were swept in the NLCS by the Mets, and I was stuck with another "Wait 'til next year" October.<br />
<br />
With the Cubs being the prohibitive favorite going into 2016, the weight of expectations were suddenly on me. See, being the "Cubs Fan" in your social groups gets you immediately associated with them no matter what happens. Friends, neighbors, co-workers all start jumping on the proverbial bandwagon as the season progresses and it starts to look like the Cubs will, in fact, be pretty good. People who knew me years ago start tagging me on Facebook.. "Cubbies look pretty good this year!". All season long, I enjoyed the constant discussion...but in the back of my mind, the threat always loomed. This is probably going to be just another year of disappointment.<br />
<br />
This is how Cubs' fans identify with one another. The Loveable Losers. Always heartbreak. Hell, even making the playoffs was something to cheer about. Constant reminders of 1945, 1908, black cats, billy goats, Steve Bartman...never stops.<br />
<br />
Then this happened. Kris Bryant, smiling all the while, throws a bullet to Anthony Rizzo in the bottom of the 10th in game 7 of the World Series, and in one instant, the entire lifetimes of Cubs fans were legitimized. Harry Caray, Ron Santo, Billy Williams, Ryne Sandberg, Greg Maddux...all of it, gone. Poof. Just like that. Watching MY TEAM jump around the mound at Progressive Field was something out of a dream. I kept looking at my son, 20 years old, and saying "I don't know what to do". Because I didn't know what to do. How do you react when something that you have hoped for, prayed for, lusted after for almost 40 years actually happens? I suppose that there is no playbook for that, but I just sat, stunned. I knew it wasn't a dream, but it also wasn't quite reality yet. MY CUBS just won the World Series. I doubt there has ever been an easy World Series win, but this must have ranked in the top 3 in difficulty. The Indians were sooooo good. Every turn, they got the hit, the pitch, the catch that they needed to turn the tides. They were up 3-1 (by the way, thanks Lebron for the good karma in posting about your team coming back from 3-1)! That doesn't happen, but it did!<br />
<br />
For those of you still with me, thank you for letting me get this off my chest. It has been a long, long time in the making. I know that sports is not the end-all be-all that a lot of people make it out to be, but it does mean a lot to some people. Just know that for most of those people, it isn't about the ball and bat, or about the millionaire athletes playing a game, or the city...it is about those life-long relationships that mean SO much to them all coming to a culmination of ecstasy in one brief, shining moment...that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.<br />
<br />
"Nothing has changed, but everything has changed"Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-11825653452116259772014-06-27T17:34:00.001-05:002014-06-27T17:34:26.296-05:00Things I am tired of:<br />
<ul>
<li>Blog posts about choreographed wedding dances.</li>
<li>PR people who clearly sit down at their desk in the morning, search for the name of their client, and Retweet 15 tweets in a row.</li>
<li>Linkbait headlines:</li>
<ul>
<li>What he does next will shock you!</li>
<li>You won't believe how...</li>
</ul>
<li>The Cubs losing</li>
<li>People who don't blog enough</li>
<li>People who think astronomy is a real thing</li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Scorpio?src=hash">#Scorpio</a> don't have an attitude problem, they have a personality you can't handle!<br />
— Scorpio (@Sheliagtv) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sheliagtv/statuses/482637173104324609">June 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></li>
<li>Truthers</li>
<li>Antiquated Blackout policies from sports leagues</li>
<li><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Have I mentioned how much I hate MLB TV blackout restrictions? I'd rather be watching at work not listening.. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Orioles?src=hash">#Orioles</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rays?src=hash">#Rays</a><br />
— Kelly Dorsey (@KLD810) <a href="https://twitter.com/KLD810/statuses/482571379456634881">June 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
Bloggers who make it their personal vendetta to rip apart every word of another blogger.<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></li>
</ul>
Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-5290407212225311962014-06-24T11:36:00.001-05:002014-06-24T11:36:09.192-05:00Things I Find Ridiculous<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
BREAKING: The entire heat fan base has opted out and are now free agents with Lebron<br />
— Shooter McGavin (@ShooterMcGavin_) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShooterMcGavin_/statuses/481449908986081282">June 24, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
<ul>
<li>People who get excited about going to a sporting event to drink beer.</li>
<li>How it is a standard practice to pick the thumbnail of a clip on YouTube based on the hot girl in the video, and not have anything to do with the actual content of the video</li>
<li>The new Star Wars movies. Seriously, is there ANY chance they will be great? No...likely they will be decent, but forgettable. Just like the new Star Trek movies.</li>
<li>Lake Granbury rising over 4 feet in one day...and poor Lake Bridgeport.</li>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
Here's a look at updated Lake Levels after our recent rains. Since Sunday, some area lakes have seen a boost! <a href="http://t.co/PVH2Pzuk0A">pic.twitter.com/PVH2Pzuk0A</a><br />
— Pete Delkus (@wfaaweather) <a href="https://twitter.com/wfaaweather/statuses/481150410636271616">June 23, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<li>Companies who say that their prices are equivalent to "a cup of coffee a day".</li>
<li>Coffee that is more than a dollar a cup. It is water strained over beans, people!</li>
<li>People who leave vague, cryptic Facebook statuses then get mad when someone doesn't explain to them what is going on</li>
<li>Steampunk. Anything and everything steampunk.</li>
<li>Senators and Congressman who single out the President like they aren't part of the problem and he is the only reason we are in any mess anywhere</li>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
We're witnessing a humanitarian crisis unfolding that is the direct consequence of President Obama’s lawlessness: <a href="http://t.co/KDP8MlVwLX">http://t.co/KDP8MlVwLX</a><br />
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/statuses/481129589402775553">June 23, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<li>People who put "Breaking:" in front of tweets that are just a stupid joke. </li>
<li>The fact that the FCC allows car horns and police sirens in radio commercials.</li>
</ul>
Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-48550151264610792282014-03-25T10:30:00.000-05:002014-03-25T10:30:07.588-05:00High Tension!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyHZZlJUIqoJfAvyYr_sR7zSXiKMPtw46Poms3KNehSYTQL2J9HnGBJHP6Nw9GfvflBx94dr3WqNUnJfOHY1wXn5GgsGaNcHIHK8LDmyOMH8DUaK-uOa-7HNYNRkva_RBuaZmgRARqQV0V/s1600/1911412_10153936480115153_100034156_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyHZZlJUIqoJfAvyYr_sR7zSXiKMPtw46Poms3KNehSYTQL2J9HnGBJHP6Nw9GfvflBx94dr3WqNUnJfOHY1wXn5GgsGaNcHIHK8LDmyOMH8DUaK-uOa-7HNYNRkva_RBuaZmgRARqQV0V/s1600/1911412_10153936480115153_100034156_o.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
Last night, the family was jazzed to attend the Dallas Stars game vs. the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets had embarrassed the Stars the last time they met, so the Stars needed to put together a good effort to remain in the playoff race. The amazing wife somehow scored FREE tickets to the game. The seats were in the rafters, but I didn't care. Hockey is hockey.<br />
<br />
We get to our seats, and the seats start to fill up with Stars fans. A few rows in front of me, a family shows up, about 12 people strong. They mill about, getting seated, figuring out their positioning, etc. The game starts, and we are having a good time. It was clear to me that this family really hadn't been to a lot of hockey games, because they had the WORST timing of when to stand up and sit down. In fact, most of them were looking at their phones for the majority of the game. They also had an apparent addiction to the concession stand, because they got up for food quite a bit, always returning with another basket of fries or a new soda.<br />
<br />
This is where the problem started. Every time they got up, they talked to each other. They didn't do the talking when they were sitting...they would stand up, then poll the group about what they wanted, where they were going, etc. Unfortunately for all of us, they only seemed to do this when the puck was in play. Never when there was down time. In fact, it seemed as if they knew the game so well that they planned it to stand up only when there was something interesting going on (not really, just bad timing).<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhefYHISZWuUF8BsZedmGO9GsxJwkzRagHfCCkIvTM83CSCLtvZv-KxV50yMu0hAq_RIaFByLCiQXI7Mvt9j9RN-Klzme5x8tB6bve9Qc-O0aIyZDKNkHx-65YIsmF3JWWvG3XbLwmVJmOX/s1600/13406206934_b32ae7e246_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhefYHISZWuUF8BsZedmGO9GsxJwkzRagHfCCkIvTM83CSCLtvZv-KxV50yMu0hAq_RIaFByLCiQXI7Mvt9j9RN-Klzme5x8tB6bve9Qc-O0aIyZDKNkHx-65YIsmF3JWWvG3XbLwmVJmOX/s1600/13406206934_b32ae7e246_z.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
About halfway through the second period (not quarter, as I had to remind my wife and daughter over and over), a man and his wife who were directly behind The Standupertons finally said something. Apparently, the wife said "Sit your ass down!" to the mother of the group. She was having none of that. Some serious attitude was put on display at that point. The Mr. Standuperton tried to resolve the situation by trying to calm some people down, but Ms. Standuperton was not interested. She launched into a tirade about how she will "stand up whenever she wants" and that they "paid for these seats just like they did". The situation never got to violence, but there was one point that really stuck out.<br />
<br />
Ms. Standuperton's apparent main complaint was that the wife behind her "cussed" by using the highly offensive word "ass". This was the crux of her argument back. After a few back and forths, though, she said something to the effect of "this bitch don't tell me shit to do" or something similar. At that point, I said something to everyone to try and keep the profanities to a minimum. There were quite a few younger kids around, my daughter included. It really diffused at this point, and everyone sat back and watched the game. About 30 minutes later (nice response time, AAC), an usher came by and politely lectured the couple of rows that were involved. Nobody got kicked out, nothing else was said.<br />
<br />
Mr. and Ms. Standuperton left near the end of the 2nd period, but quite a few of the party remained. It was a never-ending stand up fest. Not kidding, they must have spent $300 at the concession stand, because they were just back and forth, back and forth all night long. I just wished they would have had some better timing of when to stand up and when to sit!Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-15235021853423768182014-03-24T12:08:00.000-05:002014-03-24T12:08:42.987-05:00Hall and Oates<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About a month ago, I took the wife and mother in law to Durant, OK to see Hall & Oates. Fantastic show, but the venue leaves much to be desired. It is like a large metal barn with the stage at the wrong side. They did it so they could sell more front row seats (It is at the Choctaw casino) which makes it more difficult for the sides to see what the heck is going on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Attending a concert that you wouldn't necessarily go to yourself allows you an opportunity to people watch. My observations led to this diatribe on Facebook:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">1. If you are standing up, and no one around you is standing up, you should probably sit down, especially if the seats are on a non-elevated surface. There is one exception to this: if you are dancing, stand up, dance, and have a good time. But make sure t</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">o sell it...don't fake dance. DANCE.<br />2. Take a second and go back through your videos on your phone and find the footage from the last concert you attended. Unless you are in the front two rows, it probably looks like hot garbage spilled into an old diaper. Put your f*cking phone down (sorry mom, this needs emphasis). Take a picture, fine...take a short video...fine. But don't video the whole show. Videos and pictures are intended to enhance our memories, not replace them. Your memories will be of you looking at a phone screen all night...and so will the people behind you.<br />3. Remember that every single thing you do affects everyone else's ability to enjoy the show. Just because you don't recognize the song that is playing doesn't mean you can talk loudly to your friend during the song. Unless you are talking about the show, keep your conversations to a minimum.<br />4. To add to point #1, if someone in front of you is standing up, and won't sit down, realize there isn't much you can do about it. Don't spend the next 3 songs bitching about it to your wife. You are making it more difficult for the people around you to enjoy themselves.<br />5. Taking pictures of the video screen? Seriously?<br />6. Turn off the flash on your phone! Most people don't realize this, but even good camera flashes only go about 15 feet. If you are that close to the stage, you don't need it. If you are too far from the stage, it won't do you any good. Plus, your camera pre-flashes and lights up the entire section, making the experience more difficult for others to enjoy.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I sat there for three songs and listened to the guy next to me bitch about the people in front of us standing up. He made the experience miserable for everybody, dropping F-bombs constantly. Please don't be that guy...</span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-3303257440477087672013-09-06T10:53:00.002-05:002013-09-06T10:53:36.640-05:00Raised RightI see lots of Facebook "memes" (I put that in quotes because people think they are memes, but aren't even close) that lecture people on "growing up right". You know what I am talking about...<br />
<br />
I drank from the water hose as a kid.<br />
I went and played outside as a kid.<br />
My mom beat the shit out of me as a kid.<br />
<br />
I would like to say that I grew up right. My mom taught me life lessons along the vein of "I accept people the way they are". Sure, it frustrates me from time to time that my kids don't play outside even 1% of how much I did as a kid. I also remember when the Nintendo came out...I wouldn't have gone outside for 5 minutes if I had owned one of those things. In fact, I can remember going over to a friend's house and sitting in a room with 10 other 5th graders watching someone play Super Mario Bros.<br />
<br />
Probably the best thing my mom ever did for me was refuse to buy me a video game system. Mostly was because we couldn't afford it, but she also didn't want me spending all of my time indoors. But there were kids who did stay indoors...and they turned out fine. The second best thing my parents did for me was to buy a computer...and I spent a lot of time on it, and it shaped who I am and made me good at what I do.<br />
<br />
You have to just trust that your kids will be who they are. You can guide them, but forcing them to do something they hate will only generate resentment. The number one thing you can do for your kids is to just be there. Be there when they need you, and be there when they don't. Trust but verify. Keep them out of trouble with your presence. Ask them question after question about their life, their loves, their problems. You may not get much out of them, but they will remember when they are older that you talked to them and genuinely cared. <br />
<br />
That is all it takes!Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-48742164880763633462013-09-05T17:19:00.002-05:002013-09-05T17:19:34.471-05:00Ocwen = TroubleFor the last several years, the wife and I have owned a rental property. Not because we are real estate moguls, mind you, but because when we bought our current house, we were so upside down on that house that the only choice was to become landlords.<br />
<br />
Anyway, we finally sold the house this week, and are relieved to no longer be landlords. But here is some advice: If your mortgage statement goes to a company named<b> Ocwen</b>, be careful. Not saying that they will try to screw you, but if you need anything done (such as payoff letters, statements, etc.) give them an extra 5 days or so...because you will call them, and get someone in Bangladesh who has no authority to do <u>anything</u>. <br />
<br />
So give it a few extra days if you can. Just a short, public service announcement.Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-27673985244312628342013-08-13T09:59:00.001-05:002013-08-13T09:59:59.272-05:0022 Words | Man with OCD heart-wrenchingly describes finding and losing love<a href="http://twentytwowords.com/2013/08/12/man-with-ocd-heart-wrenchingly-describes-finding-and-losing-love/">22 Words | Man with OCD heart-wrenchingly describes finding and losing love</a>Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-69944543923598093432013-05-30T10:16:00.002-05:002013-05-30T10:16:55.513-05:00It's been such a long time...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Wow, it has been a while. Life sure moves fast. If you don't stop every once in a while, you might miss it.<br />
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Close enough, Simone.<br />
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We love movies. Often, we will just randomly pick a movie and watch it, but what we love to do is show the kids movies from our childhood and hope that they will like them. So far, the favorite in the clubhouse is Son in Law, with Pauly Shore. The kids loved that movie. So far, the worst movie we have watched would have to be Malibu's Most Wanted with Jamie Kennedy. Universally disliked by all. We also have a tendency to go on actor kicks, albeit unintentionally most of the time. For example, we will watch the Lion King and then watch Wargames, which has the same actor in it (see above for a clue, if you missed it).<br />
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Well, another school year concludes today. As of this afternoon, I will have a 5th grader and a senior in high school. Yep, Chandler graduates next year. This blur that keeps blowing past me is life, and I don't know where it goes.<br />
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I miss the heck out of my dad. It has been almost three months. The hardest part is coping with baseball season. The Cubs have been pretty bad this year, but I sure do get sad when good things happen and I don't have anyone to really share it with. I miss hearing the joy in his voice when we talked about baseball, and he was one of the only people that I could really talk at that level with without going crazy. It is like there is this whole fountain of discussion bubbling up inside of me, and I can't get rid of it because I don't have him around to talk about it with.<br />
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If you are reading this, I implore you to find me and add me to your circles on Google Plus. It really is so much better than Facebook, but I miss the interaction sometimes. I need people on there to talk to! The ads and app notifications on the book have just gotten to be too much for me to handle. Not to mention the pages that people start that are just Reddit sharing machines. That ain't cool.<br />
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Pretty good movie alert: Jack Reacher. Sure, it wasn't the best movie, but I am a sucker for movies that have a great investigator, and that is Cruise's character in this one. Fun movie with some pretty good action, but I love the whodunit aspect and how he goes about investigating it.<br />
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Horrible movie alert: Killing Them Softly If you want to be bored out of your mind, give it a watch. There is almost no plot. Two guys rob a poker game, and they get shot for it. Yep, that is it. Sad part is, it was based on a book. Insomnia cure, right there!<br />
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Enjoy your summer. Spend time with your kids, because before you know it, they will be looking for jobs and rolling their eyes at you every 5 minutes. My kids have become Liz Lemon, and yours will too....Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-20608060121985283312013-03-21T13:55:00.000-05:002013-03-21T13:55:20.457-05:00Where to begin?It's funny, all the little twists and turns that life takes. Things can change so quickly, and it really makes you examine the word forever. We use that word a lot, and it really takes something life changing to appreciate what power that word has, and how often we misuse it.<br />
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My father passed away on Saturday night, March 16th. While it wasn't a sudden surprise, it wasn't exactly like we planned for it. My father has always had "health problems", and I put them in quotes because they weren't what you would normally refer to as such. My dad had beaten cancer three times in his life, only had one kidney, and was generally a medical miracle. We had prepared for his death back in 2005 when he found out he had kidney cancer, but he bounced back from that one, too.<br />
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So, when I heard he had gone to the hospital with fluid in his lung, I kind of figured that this would just be another round of visiting him in the hospital, he would get better, and then go about his way. It wasn't in the cards this time, though. When he got to the hospital, it was determined that he had experienced a minor heart attack the night before. He then proceeded to have another heart attack while in the hospital. He basically decided at that point that enough was enough, and told the doctors and nurses not to resuscitate. He was sent home on hospice and died a few days later at the age of 62.<br />
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The point of this post is not to gather sympathy from anyone. The goal is to really make sure you understand the meaning of the word forever. I will never get to tell my Dad I love him again. I will never watch another Cubs' game with him. He will never read another funny email I forward to him. I will never like another of his Facebook posts. The list goes on and on of things that won't be shared by us or anyone who knew him. Everything reminds me of him at this point in time. Any time someone says the word "Dad", it gets me just a little bit. I see pictures of my friends with their dads, and it gives me just a pang of jealousy. I watch TV and little things remind me of him, and it hurts just a little. <br />
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I urge you, if you have someone in your life that you haven't spoken to in a while that you need to, please do it. They will appreciate it. Sometimes it is just that one of you needs to make that little bit of effort to break the ice. I was fortunate. I didn't leave anything unsaid. There is not one ounce of regret in my heart about my relationship with my dad, and it certainly made this process easier. It can happen quickly, and a lot of people don't get the opportunity to sit with their loved ones for an hour and just talk about life. I got that opportunity, and I will be forever grateful.<br />
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There have been so many wonderful people that have made this process as good as it could have been. The list goes on and on, and I am so appreciative at the outpouring of support my family and I have received during this time. It means the world to us, and it will not be forgotten. <br />
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Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-71315008899576776202013-02-15T12:40:00.001-06:002013-02-15T12:40:53.099-06:00Compilation of goats hollering like humans<a href="http://twentytwowords.com/2013/02/15/compilation-of-goats-hollering-like-humans/">Compilation of goats hollering like humans</a>: <br />
This is bizarrely hilarious…<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="357" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PpccpglnNf0?rel=0" width="634"></iframe>Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-72159584103140663572013-01-23T09:05:00.000-06:002013-01-23T09:05:00.908-06:00Scandalous!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, Tim Brown and Jerry Rice: You are telling me that a Head Coach of a NFL team, while on the cusp of the greatest achievement one could attain in their field, decided to lose the game on purpose? Seriously, that might be the dumbest thing I have ever heard. <br />
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If you don't have a WaterPik, I highly urge you to get one. They are fantastic.<br />
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I am currently digitizing our home movie library. Not our DVD Movies, but the home video tapes that we have collected over the past decade and a half. I have way more than I realized....this could take a while.<br />
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Bought myself one of those chin-up bars you put on a doorway. I am going to be so ripped! (Not really...I will probably give up after three days, but who notices that?)<br />
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Zero Dark Thirty: Go see it. Awesome flick. Great story, enjoyable sequences...and no extraneous crap to muck up the main narrative. Every second of the movie is about how they caught and killed Bin Laden. Who knows how much of it is accurate, but it seems to get the main point down pretty well. Highly enjoyable.<br />
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97% of my web traffic comes from Barry's blog. Thanks, Barry!Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-81951289668483789852013-01-11T14:32:00.002-06:002013-01-11T14:32:38.392-06:00American Taxi Driver PsychoAs is common for me when I need movies to watch, I like to go to the ol' internet and find lists...Top 10 Movies every Guy Should See, or The 30 Movies that mention Elastic Waistbands, etc.<br />
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So, I found a list and was intrigued by two movies. First, American Psycho starring Christian Bale. Bale plays Patrick Bateman, who works on Wall Street in the late 80's. He is a pretty typical schmuck, as movies from that time period tend to depict...except that he is a murderous psychopath behind his mask of "normality". I thought the movie was very well shot, but I was very confused at how the film played out. I was left with quite a large question mark over my head as to the resolution of the film, and there seem to be a lot of people who agree with that assessment on the interwebs. Overall, it failed to resonate with me but I plan on reading the book to see if I can gain further clarity.<br />
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The second movie I watched was Taxi Driver, a "masterpiece" starring Robert DeNiro and directed by Martin Scorsece. I have noticed that there seems to be a time period of movies that I don't get, and this falls squarely into that time perieod. This movie is considered to be one of the greatest of all time, and personally, I thought it was prettty awful. Maybe I don't "get" older movies, but they tend to fall very flat for me. I watched Chinatown a few months ago, and can't remember being more bored with a film...until I saw Taxi Driver. The only interesting part of the movie for me was trying desperately to remember Harvey Keitel's name. Other than that, I only watched the rest of the film because I was sure that at some point there would be a point to the movie. Maybe I am wrong...maybe there is something that I missed that was critical to tying the film together, but whatever it was, I missed it big time. I was confused the whole time as to what the hell was going on, and there really wasn't much of a plot to latch on to. Was he going to kill Palentine? Was he trying to date Betsy? Was he trying to save Iris? Who knows? I would love to talk to someone who "gets" this movie and have them explain it to me, and why I am so wrong, because lord knows I am not going to come to that realization on my own.<br />
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Can one of you help?Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-56697079818775790282012-12-03T09:31:00.002-06:002012-12-03T09:31:47.488-06:00Deceptive Movie Titles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I will readily admit, I judge books by their cover. I have long since learned that I don't have the time to give every book, movie, and album a fair shot. I would be backlogged for years and never get out of it. So, I have to judge things by my immediate reaction (quick aside, you should read the book <i>Blink</i> by Malcom Gladwell about that subject. Great stuff.). This inevitably leads to me missing the boat on some great stuff, but it also leads me to finding things that I thought weren't going to be great and turn out to be fantastic.<br />
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One of the great differences between me and my wife is that she will watch anything. We give Redbox way too much business because she will watch pretty much every DVD that they put out because she just doesn't care. She just wants to watch something for 2 hours and be done with it. Movie watching for me is much more personal. I need to feel involved, like I am part of an experience. I don't watch movies for watching's sake. I want to be invested in the experience. So, I am pretty picky about what I watch.<br />
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Both of these points lead up to the next bullet, which is how movie titles can drastically affect which movies I watch. A great example of this was the movie "Dinner for Schmucks" with Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell. I knew the basic premise of the movie (rich guys bring morons to dinner and pick a winner) but not much else. After watching the movie, I was actually a bit upset because the title was flat out wrong for the movie. The film was about Paul Rudd finding one of these "morons" for the dinner and how he kind of ruined his life. The "dinner" was the last 20 minutes of the movie. I felt a bit betrayed. I truly believe the movie would have been a bigger success if it had been called "A Week with Barry" or something similar. I judged the movie by its title, and it betrayed me a bit.<br />
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Ok, so final point: One of the movies that has snuck past me for several years is the movie "Donnie Darko". The reason that it got by my finely honed filters is that it sounds like an Italian gangster movie (to me). I thought it was just another movie like Goodfellas or Carlito's Way, and I can't stand gangster movies. Seriously, I don't think I have enjoyed one movie like that, save for The Usual Suspects. So I never watched it. <br />
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When I travel, I like to load up on movies, and I often can't think of movies to load up on, so I go online and look for lists. 100 MOVIES EVERY GUY SHOULD SEE, or 10 BEST MOVIES ABOUT GIANT BUNNY RABBITS...you get the idea. One site mentioned Donnie Darko, but it had one element I hadn't seen before...and it was the picture above. "Wait a minute! Italian gangsters don't have demented bunny rabbits with them!" Turns out, the movie is about a high school boy (Jake Gyllenhal) with some pretty severe dementia, and it has to do with time travel, fate, destiny, insane private school teachers, and the like. It was a great, great movie. I really, really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it. I won't say that it changed my life (there are a lot of people online who say this...just check the IMDB comments), but I was very happy to have found one that slipped through the cracks.<br />
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I am a firm believer that movies find you. If I haven't had some sort of inkling that a movie is going to be good, I usually end up not liking it. A good example is "Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". That movie was terrible, and I should have known. If no one has recommended a movie to me, or I haven't had my interest piqued by something online or on the radio/tv, I almost never like it. But movies like Donnie Darko will keep that fire alive that tells me to watch a movie in spite of my best efforts to not like it.Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-27890597405785161162012-11-30T08:59:00.002-06:002012-11-30T08:59:24.608-06:00Key and Peele: Dueling Hats<div style="background-color: black; width: 520px;">
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<b><a href="http://www.comedycentral.com/">Comedy Central</a></b></div>
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If you haven't had the pleasure of watching Key and Peele on Comedy Central, you can thank me later.</div>
Test</div>
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Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-57808066968302307802012-11-16T08:57:00.001-06:002012-11-16T08:57:42.757-06:00You are predictable<a href="http://twentytwowords.com/2012/11/15/you-are-predictable/">You are predictable</a>: <br />
Take this simple test if you don’t believe it…<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="476" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DaWcL3oOd-E?rel=0" width="634"></iframe>Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-39174551929514803282012-11-12T15:12:00.004-06:002012-11-12T15:12:48.601-06:00The best medicine...If you had to pick the one video (viral or otherwise) that made you laugh the hardest consistently, what would it be?<br />
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This would be mine:<br />
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<br />Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-80180101454118000602012-10-29T12:37:00.001-05:002012-10-29T12:37:40.659-05:0040 Behind The Scenes Photos From Classic Horror Movies | The Roosevelts<a href="http://www.rsvlts.com/2012/10/21/40-behind-the-scenes-photos-from-classic-horror-movies/">40 Behind The Scenes Photos From Classic Horror Movies | The Roosevelts</a><br />
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Great slideshow of some behind the scenes photos of scary movies. Really takes the sting out of the "horror" to see Pennywise the Clown taking a break on the porch of a house...Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-5095360995656855282012-10-25T10:31:00.000-05:002012-10-25T10:31:05.197-05:00Sir...Can you please stand up?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The next installment of the "travel blog" has to do with a very kind old man taking a weird turn. On my flight to Chicago, I was seated next to an older gentleman (probably early 70's) who was polite for the entire flight. No problems whatsoever. He got up to use the restroom in the middle of the flight, and we shared a cordial laugh when he had trouble locating his seat belt. Perfectly normal interaction for a flight.<br />
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If you have flown on a commercial airliner in the past 10 years, you probably are aware of the etiquette of how to deplane. When the seatbelt sign turns off, several people immediately stand up (I can't, for the life of me, figure out why, but that is a different story) but most people remain seated. People start to file out of the plane, row by row, until you get to your row. Then you stand up and get your bag and leave.<br />
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Which gets us to me. I was on the aisle seat, waiting for our row's turn. There was no room for me to stand up because the aisle was full of other people. There were still about two rows in front of us that hadn't stood up yet, so it wasn't even close to my turn to stand up. This is where it got a bit odd. The older gentleman next to me says, "Sir? Can you please stand up?" as if I could have stood up, but was choosing not to. He wasn't rude...he actually said it very politely. I was just floored at what I could have possibly been doing for him to assume I wasn't going to stand up as soon as I could. Trust me, I wanted to get off the plane as soon as I could. I turned and looked at him, momentarily stunned while trying to imagine what scenario he was running through to say this to me. It really took me aback. I looked at him, and said that I was going as soon as I could, trying very hard not to sound annoyed...but in reality, I was a bit annoyed.<br />
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There always seem to be a couple of people on every flight who think that the flight is their own personal vessel, and they can't be bothered with all of these other people. The best example I can think of is the person who is in the row behind you, and uses your seat as a way to pull themselves out of their seat or out of the row...causing your seat to lurch backwards violently as they huff and puff their way towards the restroom. Or, the person who violently moves their seat back as quickly as they can, launching anything on your tray table on to the floor. It just amazes me how people operate in their own little cocoon, oblivious to the world around them.<br />
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Most of the time, people are perfectly gracious. But every once in a while, you get something that happens to you that just floors you...and I will keep telling you about them. :)Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-3364686168953412942012-10-24T10:38:00.001-05:002012-10-24T10:38:09.895-05:00Dave's Travel Blog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj94ELFqZQ7LVGHaynTdkp-a1z8dmPDiin4KANrDAcyDCromYzE_eTptlkl1sUY3wfkLnRHMI2hDUTD_yd5b6lTu8JH7UXAFOuqgH-YVUibhvWXIP_eu9DiCxpvcEGWFSIKPjMyWzhmU-EH/s1600/picplz+2011-11-09+17.04.46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj94ELFqZQ7LVGHaynTdkp-a1z8dmPDiin4KANrDAcyDCromYzE_eTptlkl1sUY3wfkLnRHMI2hDUTD_yd5b6lTu8JH7UXAFOuqgH-YVUibhvWXIP_eu9DiCxpvcEGWFSIKPjMyWzhmU-EH/s320/picplz+2011-11-09+17.04.46.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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I travel a pretty fair amount for work, so I get to spend a lot of time in airports and on airplanes. If there is a better place to people watch, I don't know what it is. You get such an amazing cross section of people that it never fails to make me wonder how we survived as a species. I figure I can start to document some of the things that I have seen, because some of them are just too good not to share.<br />
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Flight to Chicago O'Hare:<br />
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Seated in the row in front of me are an older couple (probably late 50's) and what appears to be their 10-11 year old grandson. Gramps is in the aisle seat, Grams is in the middle, and blondie boy is at the window. It was a pretty uneventful flight, and we were seated near the front of the plane. Upon arriving at O'Hare, in the two second window between pulling into the gate and the pilot turning off the seat belt light, Grams tears off her seat belt, leaps over Gramps and attempts to make it to the back of the plane (probably 30-35 rows worth of people) to get to the bathroom. She made it all the way to....my row before realizing that she would never make it back to the bathroom.<br />
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Has this person ever flown before? How could she not know that before the seat belt light even went off that there was no way she was going to make it back there? Hell, you could be seated three rows in front of the bathroom and have trouble making it back, but she wanted to traverse 30 rows of passengers, 5 to a row in less than .3 of a second? I could only shake my head in disbelief.<br />
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Next blog post...The impatient old man seated next to me...Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-47534373272871921902012-10-17T09:08:00.001-05:002012-10-17T09:08:00.288-05:00Refine Edge<a href="http://jasonjordan.com.au/refine-edge/">Refine Edge</a>: <br />
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/pQeQX.jpg"><img alt="" height="800" src="http://imgur.com/pQeQX.jpg" width="600" /></a><br />
Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-36769192679624551802012-09-20T12:15:00.001-05:002012-09-20T12:15:18.570-05:00Jennifer Aniston’s leaked security camera footage confirms terrible rumors<a href="http://twentytwowords.com/2012/09/19/jennifer-anistons-leaked-security-camera-footage-confirms-terrible-rumors/">Jennifer Aniston’s leaked security camera footage confirms terrible rumors</a>: <br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="357" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/phpb_ssnyug?rel=0" width="634"></iframe><br />
(via <a href="http://www.tastefullyoffensive.com/2012/09/leaked-security-camera-footage-from.html">Tastefully Offensive</a>)Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-45499255997504900442012-09-14T10:31:00.001-05:002012-09-14T10:31:29.849-05:00My Blackberry Trials...<p>Last November, my work allowed me to purchase an iPhone 4s for my daily use. It was easily the best phone experience I have ever had. Everything worked very well. Of course, there was the occasional hiccup, but overall, the experience was as close to perfect as one could get.</p><p>Last month, my work (who was purchased by a much larger company) told me that I had to get rid of the iPhone and switch to the generic phone offered to all employees, the Blackberry Curve. It has been one of the worst months of my life (#firstworldproblems) as far as phones are concerned. I will skip, for the most part, my displeasure at a multi-million dollar company giving their employees the crappiest phone available. Having said that, here are some of my observations of note:</p><ul><li>First of all, I have really small hands for a guy. Seriously, my hands are only slightly larger than the average woman's hands. I have an egregiously hard time typing on this sucker. The buttons are too small, they aren't very responsive, and I spend more time going back and correcting words than I do actually typing out the message.</li><li>Work forces me to have a password on the phone, which I understand. What I don't understand is that basically, the Blackberry is locked down and you can't do ANYTHING without typing in the password. You can't set the phone on silent, you can't adjust the volume, you can't even start up the camera without putting in a password. That is about as far from a good user experience as you can get.</li><li>The web surfing experience makes me want to shoot myself in the face. It is terrible. Nothing loads smoothly, the scroll button is inconsistent at best, and the back button doesn't work consistently.</li><li>I have dropped the phone three times on accident. All three times, the back has popped off and the battery fell out, forcing me to restart my phone.</li><li>For a phone that doesn't do anything, the battery life is pretty bad. I have unplugged in the morning, and had the battery run out in the evening several times. What could possibly be draining the battery? I don't talk on it that much...</li><li>Bing is the default search engine. That should tell you enough about the user experience.</li><li>App support is abysmal, but I can't blame developers. It is like retrofitting the Titanic. Spending any significant amount of time on app development for the Blackberry would be counterproductive.</li><li>One thing that I really miss about the iPhone is the iPod part. The Blackberry, for lack of a better term, blows in this regard. I think I have attached a pair of headphones to it once, and it was such a horrible experience that I just gave up.</li></ul><p>With all of the attention paid to Steve Jobs in the last 5 years or so, you would think that there would be some attention to detail that would float to the top, but there are so many little things that I notice that I would consider unacceptable in a product design. For example:</p><ul><li>The USB cable gets plugged into the side of the phone. This is a bad choice for a couple of reasons. One, it makes the phone hard to use when it is plugged in. The cord sticks out awkwardly and forces you to only use it on one ear. Second, if you have a desk, you better hope you can plug in in on your left hand side (of the desk), because it won't work on the right hand side.</li><li>This is a tiny detail, but one that didn't get by me: The plug has a little Blackberry logo on it. When you plug the cord in to power up the phone, the logo is on the wrong side of the plug. Jobs wouldn't have let this happen. :)</li></ul><p> </p><p>It isn't all bad, though. There are a couple things that are at least useful:</p><ul><li>Google Voice is somewhat integrated into the OS, so at least that is easy...but the Google Voice app is barely functional, so you trade off a bit.</li><li>It is a good phone...</li></ul><p>I do see why companies still use Blackberries. People who use BB don't use data, so it saves them a ton of money on data plans. My data usage has probably dropped 90% since switching. It is unfortunate, though, because no one I work with likes their phone. They look at it as a detriment, and in some occasions, feel embarassed to use it when in high-stakes sales situations because it is a bit of a status hit.</p><p>It is amazing to me how phone companies haven't tried to steal Apple's business model. Make one kick ass phone and that is it. You look around and you see every phone company making tons of devices to fit all different customer types, and none of them are really succeeding. HTC has taken a nose dive in the last year. Samsung is paying Apple a billion dollars for copying the design of the iPhone, and Motorola still hasn't figured out how they are going to do anything since Google bought their mobile division. I bet there is enough talent at RIM left to make one really great phone that people will like. Sure, you aren't going to put a dent in the Apple juggernaut, but you could at least create some forward momentum. </p><p>If you are fortunate enough to have a job that provides you with a phone that you like, make sure to tell them thank you. It could be much, much worse.</p>Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-77184116991193759222012-09-05T11:41:00.001-05:002012-09-05T11:41:27.654-05:00Big Fat Meh<br />
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<li>All of this recent uproar of "surviving the zombie apocalypse" had me thinking....wouldn't most people in the world have to be zombies for there to be an apocalypse? Just thinking about the odds of becoming a zombie would deter me from "preparing" for it. Chances are, all of the people who are super prepared would probably become zombies themselves, making their preparation irrelevant.</li>
<li>The Google Nexus 7 tablet looks fascinating, but there seems to be one point that everyone isn't mentioning. App Sharing. In my family, there are two iPads, two iPhones, and each of the kids has their own iPod touch. When I buy an app through iTunes, everyone gets the app for no additional charge. But with Android, I don't think that is the case. This will REALLY deter me from buying an Android tablet, unless they address this.</li>
<li>Since everything is tied to your Google account, there is too much separation for a family. I can't believe no one thought of this...or if they did think of it, they certainly don't seem to care.</li>
<li>It is funny how different parts of the country are the same, but totally different. I just got back from a few days in Maryland and Delaware, and everything works the same, but nothing looks the same. I guess I am just used to the way Texas is laid out, because nothing felt right while I was there.</li>
<li>I am nervous about the Cowboys' season this year, because I do have reasonable expectations. Last year wasn't so bad because I expected them to have a down year. This year is different from my vantage point.</li>
<li>I have noticed that my life is significantly less busy and easier to deal with if my teams are terrible. I am a wreck if the Cubs are in the hunt. I haven't had much to worry about for a few years. :)</li>
<li>I watched the pilot to the new show, Revolution. Apparently, something happens that makes electricity not work anymore, and we go back to being farmers and such. Even though the trailer was directed by Jon Favreau and has Gus Fring from Breaking Bad in it, it gets a big fat meh from me. Way too much sword fighting and arrow shooting. It was like the producers watched the Hunger Games right before they filmed it. Give me STORY, not fighting! Give me characters, not blood!</li>
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Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8748018220285134061.post-89962049107743207792012-06-15T10:05:00.001-05:002012-06-15T10:05:57.146-05:00Talkative teen is a hilarious sweetheart while hopped up on anesthesia<a href="http://twentytwowords.com/2012/06/15/talkative-teen-is-a-hilarious-sweetheart-while-hopped-up-on-anesthesia/">Talkative teen is a hilarious sweetheart while hopped up on anesthesia</a>: <br />
This had me laughing throughout and got a couple <em>aww</em>s out of me, too…<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="357" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8rNeKS22Wsg?rel=0" width="634"></iframe><br />
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<div><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/22_words?a=eSskZdTQaaY:s41lI82_YZU:D7DqB2pKExk"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/22_words?i=eSskZdTQaaY:s41lI82_YZU:D7DqB2pKExk" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/22_words?a=eSskZdTQaaY:s41lI82_YZU:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/22_words?i=eSskZdTQaaY:s41lI82_YZU:V_sGLiPBpWU" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/22_words?a=eSskZdTQaaY:s41lI82_YZU:qj6IDK7rITs"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/22_words?d=qj6IDK7rITs" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/22_words?a=eSskZdTQaaY:s41lI82_YZU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img border="0" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/22_words?i=eSskZdTQaaY:s41lI82_YZU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" /></a></div>Duhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00912182406581186155noreply@blogger.com0