Havasimy

Two things:

-This type of thing always seems to interest me. Sometimes it seems so unPC to talk about difference between men and women, except for the obvious area of reproduction. As the article states, it provokes anxiety in people. Talk about it in scientific terms makes in almost PC-proof.

-Five* words that describes Aaron Sorkin's talent in a nutshell: "Steam pipe trunk distribution venue".





(*if steam pipe is one word, make it "Four words...")

(note: just realized I meant to say unPC not PC, so I fixed it.)

It's about time I posted some of the little things I've found on the internet last week. First comes this blog I found. Basicly the person who runs it gives out blank postcards for people to write down a secret on and then mail it back anonymously. It's an interesting project in both art and human behavior.

Alan already mentioned this in a previous comment, but I had it down to comment on, so I put it in a post. I don't know what it's like inside. I drove past it once (on the job interview I had in State College). It didn't seem like much more than you're standard hole-in-the-wall bar. Before someone buys it, they should ask, if a drive-thru strip club is such a great idea, why hasn't a second one been opened. Especially one where the temperature doesn't regularly drop down below freezing for three months out of the year.

Staying in the adult topic area, this story answers the question on what could be more annoying than some of the new music ringtones available. I'm actually shocked that it hasn't been available in the United States yet. Could mobile carriers in the United States be getting standards? More likely they're afraid that the backlash against them would more than cancel out the new sales. It's just a matter of time before one carrier starts offering them and most of the others will likely follow suit. Considering we live in a world where there have been instances of people watching porn while riding in cars, I don't doubt that there will be people who won't hesitate in getting them. You could add them to "taking call in movie theatres" and the about-to-be-legal "cellphones on airplanes" as why people should have to be liscensed to use cellphones and have the threat of liscense suspensions held above them to force them to learn proper etiquette.

And now for one of my favorite topics: commercials. This column from Michael Hiestand talks about a new advertising campaign for golf clubs that parodies those annoying erectile dysfunction drugs. The commercial can be found on the ad campaign's website: www.trajectiledysfunction.com. The URL says it all.

I was just looking at my verizon cellphone bill and happen to glance down at the breakdown of the various taxes and government fees I was being charged. It suddenly sunk in that the PA sales tax (6%) and the Allegheny County sales tax (1%) were listed seperately. Then it further sunk in that I no longer lived in Allegheny County. When I moving out my last place and was still in temp housing in Philly, I switch my cellphone bill address to my parents' address, who don't live in Allegheny County. It's one of the things that I haven't switched to the my current address because I take care of it online anyway. But the point is that I was being charged 1% (about half a dollar) that I shouldn't.

I called up Verizon Wireless and apparently the billing address has nothing to do with what taxes are being charged. It has to do with where the actual number is linked to and since I bought the phone in Allegheny County, it's the location that is used to figure out taxes. So, when their finance department is open tomorrow, I'm going to call them up and get it all fixed. I figure since it's not their money being removed from the bill, they shouldn't give me any problems. I'm not planning on asking for a refund on the taxes for the past few months. I figure it's only a couple of bucks and it should already be in the hands of Allegheny County. Getting a refund might actually cost them more than the refund amount. I'll just consider it a minor donation to the county that I still spend a fair amount of time in when I'm back home.

By the way, there's no sales tax difference between my current place and my parents', so it doesn't cost me or save me to keep the bills going to their place.

I believe one of the scheduled guest for the Tonight Show tonight was supposed to be Paris Hilton. Thank god, it looks like they cancelled the whole slate of scheduled guest and have Ed McMahon and other regulars of Johnny Carson's on talking about Johnny, instead. To just talk for 10 minutes or so about Johnny and then bring Paris on would just be wrong. Heck, I think they should more than one show in honor of Johnny. It'd be right and, I'd bet money on this, ratings would not suffer and probably soar. Clips from Johnny's show would still beat out a new Leno episode in the ratings.

It's snowing hard today. I walked to the CVS Pharmacy for some milk and stuff. There's about a foot of snow already down and it's still going strong. I walked to the CVS with the snow and wind blowing into my face. I figured at least I won't have to walk into on the way back. I was wrong. At CVS, the manager had on a Steelers shirt, a Steelers Jacket and a Steelers ballcap. I guessed that he was a Steelers fan. He's originally from a town near my hometown. In fact, my high school played his high school in a couple sports including football (we got killed) and academic league (they got killed).

We talked for a while and laughed at people trying to drive in the snow. They wouldn't get anywhere in Pittsburgh. Everything is flat here. So anyone who has a problem driving here would be in real trouble driving in Pittsburgh.

On the walk back, the wind and snow was once again in my face.

I was planning on going to that middle-eastern restaurant. I didn't make it to there last weekend. I guess I won't make it there tonight either. Hopefully the snow will be cleared up before it's time for the football game tomorrow. I know I'm not watching it at my place. The one time I watched it at my place was the one time this year that the Steelers lost.

I just realize that, with the Steeler game being on right after the Eagles game Sunday, if I go to the bar where I've been watching the games all season, I probably won't be able to find a seat and almost definitely not a parking space because the bar will be crowded with people watching the Eagles game. So I'll probably end up going before the first game and watch both games at the bar. The Steelers are 10-0 when I watch the game sitting at that bar. They are 0-1 when I watch the game anywhere else in New Jersey.

We had the first big snow storm here since I've been here. (They might have had one around X-Mas, but I was back at my parents then.) They have the same phenomenon here that they have in Pittsburgh: people forget how to drive when the first snow storm of the season hits. It apparently took people four hours to get home last night where they usually only have to drive for less than an hour. This was due to the accidents caused by people who have forgotten how to drive in the snow. When I worked in Robinson and lived in Squirrel Hill, I used to go to the movie theatre after work when the first snowfall hit rather than deal with the Parkway West during the first snowstorm.

Of course, now I just have to walk across a parking lot to get to work. I don't miss the drive down route 51 that was my last commute. The one winter I made that drive everyday, I saw atleast three cars flipped on their hoods. That's what happens when a twisting road where people often drive 60+ mph despite alot of places where other cars can get on/off the road becomes icy.

Okay, more news items:

With a headline like "Bush: Better human intelligence needed", the jokes just write themselves.

This one has potential to be a classic, especially with her last words quoted. The only detail missing is "alcohol was involved".

I was surprised that this one didn't come from my hometown. I would say that this one might be fake, except a friend of mine from college was from Tennessee, so I wouldn't bet against it being true.

And this guy is back.

The funny thing about the last thing is that what he is fighting this time was discussed on a episode of the West Wing that I saw atleast twice this weekend. My first guess was that he got the idea to attack this windmill when he turned on Bravo to watch this and caught that episode of The West Wing. That was my first guess, then I realized that saying he was a fan of that show might be an insult to all the fans of that show.

I was flipping through the channels this morning and I flipped past the VH-1 Classics channel. It's a channel that plays older videos. I often find videos I haven't seen since high school and even videos from the 80's that I've never seen from bands that I really like. Someone explain to me why, this morning, I saw U2's "Vertigo" video on it. It came out last year. A U2 video from their "Joshua Tree" days or "Rattle & Hum" or even "Achtung, Baby". But Vertigo is only old in that it came out last year as opposed to this year. Of course, this year only includes videos that came out today or within the last sixteen days. I can accept hearing Guns 'N' Roses on a classic rock station and I can tolerate Warren G's "Regulate" being referred to as "Old School Rap" on a pop music radio station, but a video that came out last year does not belong on the "classic" video channel.

The Steelers are underdog next week despite having the #1 seed and homefield advantage. I understand them being underdogs. They haven't played dominating football since the last time they played the Patriots. I actually am glad they're underdogs. The Steelers, pretty much ever since Cowher started coaching them, have always played best when noone expected them to win. That's why they always seemed to start off seasons slow and, when everyone was down on them, they'd go on a winning streak to make the playoffs. And when they were the favorites in the playoffs, they stalled. I think it should be a good game next week.

By the way, despite the trouble he's given the Steelers in the past, I think people put too much into the fact that Corey Dillon didn't play last game. The Steelers have stopped a number of great running backs this year, including Jamal Lewis and Curtis Martin twice. One thing that worries me is that Belichick is a great coach and is the best at making a gameplan towards a specific opponent. If the Patriots win, it won't be because of Dillon. It will be because of their coach.

Right after my last post, my cable went out, which also means my internet went out. My apartment building has a small cable company supplying cable to it. It specializes in apartment complexes. That's the only choice I have for cable, but I could get internet through Verizon. I personally don't have two much problem with the cable, but alot of people I know in my building are on the verve of revolting if they aren't allowed to switch to Comcast. Now, I'd just like to say that apparently Comcast near Philly isn't like the Comcast-from-TCI-via-AT&T that serves near Pittsburgh. Apparently it offers good service. The cable company my building uses doesn't have OnDemand, HDTV, or online Bill Payment. Also, I believe, that if one repair van breaks down, they might not be able to make any service calls at all because they might not have a second one. So, after this outage, the natives will be restless and calling for the cable company's head.

Interesting side note: when I called the cable company to tell them my service was out, I got put on hold. Obviously they have one, maybe two, people manning the phones and they have an entire apartment building go out. I got a recording message at first telling me that I'm going on hold. Then twice within the first twelve minutes or so, the operator picked up long enough to tell me to "please hold" then put me on hold before I could say anything. Then the operator picked up and asked for my credit card number. I said "Excuse me?" and she said something like "Sorry. Wrong line". Then I was back on hold. I finally hung up after being on hold fifteen minutes. I immediately called back and the operator picked right up and asked how she could help. I should have hung up and called back sooner.

Now for something totally different. I have a new candidate for "stupidest thing I've ever done with a microwave". I was heating up Pecan Twirls last night. I took the wrapper off and put the entire tray in the microwave. The instruction said to heat for 40 seconds. I hit a extra "0" without realizing it. So I entered 4:00 instead of :40. I hit start and then I went to do something on the computer. I walked back to the kitchen when there was about 40 seconds left. I suddenly realize that I could smell the twirls strongly. I then realized my mistake. I open up the microwave door to find smoke, a twisted plastic tray containing rock hard pecan twirls. Luckily my microwave has a fan built into the top of it, but it stunk up the kitchen area. But my bedroom is above and behind my kitchen such that the microwave is really only a few feet from my bed. So I had to put up with melted plastic and pecans smell all night.

While the cable was out tonight, I watched "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle". That movie would have been great when we were in college. I guess you could say it was like "Dude, Where's my car?" with a less coherant plot. The cameos were great, especially the one by Neil Patrick Harris, who plays himself. I was also happy to see the girl from Clockstoppers.

One disappointing thing is, the White Castle they're trying to get to is in Cherry Hill, NJ, which is five minutes away from where I live. I've checked and there's no White Castle in Cherry Hill. The closest one to me is about a hour and a half away.

Damn, my internet just went out again so I can't post this right now. And, yes, the cable's out, too. I guess I'll have to save this on my hard drive and post it later.

Okay, I worked my half-a-day today. While there, I was talking to one of the guys who sits near me and he suggested a barber shop to go to. I needed a haircut about a month ago and I hadn't gotten one, mainly because the only ones I knew about where salon-type places. I prefer the old fashioned type barber shop. So I went and got a haircut after work.

Okay, some of the things I wanted to comment on:

First, Randy Moss pretended to moon the Green Bay fans. It wasn't the most classy thing for a player to do, but Moss doesn't have a history of celebrations and players have done worse. Hell, Jack Nicholson did something similar when he won a Golden Globe or Oscar a few years ago and everyone thought it was funny. Basicly, people overreacted. Especially the part where ESPN, who has done as much to escalating the showboatting of athletes as anyone or thing, refused to replay it that night or the next morning. Now, if Moss had actually mooned the stands, then that would require action. He just pretended to.

Second, the illegal lawyer jokes. Two guys were loudly telling lawyer jokes outside a courthouse. A lawyer objected and had them arrested. Now, there's a joke to be made about this, but nothing I can think of could beat what those guys would probably come up with.

About the Browns' QB being the stupidest man alive, I was alluding to this story and followed by this story. Now, I'm knocking on him because he's the QB of the Browns. I'm not a Browns fan, not even close, but it's not why he's an idiot. And it's not that he had two girls having a bar fight over him and one of them, his girlfriend, being arrested for it. One detail makes Jeff Garcia the biggest idiot. It's the part where it's revealed that he cheated on his Playmate of the Year girlfriend. He was dating, in my opinion, the hottest Playmate in the last ten years and he cheated on her. And the girl he cheated on her with wasn't even that hot. He should be inducted in the Idiot Hall of Fame with his plaque hanging right beside that of Halle Berry's ex-husband, who also cheated on her.

Of course the funniest detail of this whole affair was that the fight occurred in the Tramp nightclub.

And speaking of idiots, here is a case of a sick idiot. This guy has a collection that puts him among the sickest of criminals, of human beings in general. Then he lets a stranger look at them. Of course, she was also breaking the law at the time, too, But there's different degrees of breaking the law. She was breaking the law, but he was a true criminal.

I have a bunch of other things to comment on. I'll try to get to them some time this weekend. It's supposed to be a four day weekend for me, but do to circumstances, I'm going into work tomorrow morning so it's a three-and-a-half day weekend for me.

Some of the things I want to comment on is Moss's moon, illegal lawyer jokes and why the Cleveland Browns have the world's stupidest man as their QB.

As of now, I've now exercised 10 out of 13 days this year and this weekend I finally am going to start doing some exploring of my new home area. Except for a couple places I went for lunch or happy hours with co-workers, every place I've eaten here has been a national or semi-national chain type place. So I'm going to start the exploring with a middle eastern place someone at work told me about. I figure it's a good place to start. I also want to start attending various sporting events. I'm planning on attending an Arena football game and would like to hit a Indoor soccer game at some point.

Some more interesting tidbits I found on news sites:

All I can say about this one is that if people start getting the ability to sue a network because a show made them vomit, the networks would go bankrupt.

Big Ben made Time Magazine.

The new parents in my audience might get a kick out of this one. (Non-SI Subscribers might not be able to get access to this.)

I think that even if I agreed with this guy, I still would find him extremely annoying.

And on a semi-related topic (pointless lawsuits), this article's good for a laugh.

Since Bill did one (actually two) I figured I'd do one, too. I know enough Aerosmith songs that I could easily do a second with completely different songs. I still might. I tried to stick with lesser known songs. I could have used "Dream On" for a couple of them, but that would be too obvious.

Bands // Song Titles
Created by BourdiezFreak and taken 18257 times on bzoink!
Choose a band/or artist and answer only in song TITLES by that band:	Aerosmith
Are you female or male:	Voodoo Medicine Man
Describe yourself:	Last Child
How do some people feel about you:	Spaced
How do you feel about yourself:	F.I.N.E. (F**ked-up Insecure Neurotic Emotional)
Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend:	Woman of the World
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend:	No More No More
Describe where you want to be:	Remember (Walking In the Sand)
Describe what you want to be:	Lord of the Thighs
Describe how you live:	Same Old Song and Dance
Describe how you love:	Falling in Love (is Hard on the Knees)
Share a few words of wisdom:	Let the Music Do The Talking
Create a Survey | Search Surveys | Go to bzoink!

This is about frickin' time. At my last job, they had us driving to Cleveland or Baltimore from western PA to fly up to long island because flights, especially last minute flights, out of Pittsburgh was so expensive.

Also, it would mean I might be able to fly across the state cheaper than taking the train.

This story about the tsunami just fascinated me. I like Rick Reilly's column about the same people better, but I believe it's only available online to Sports Illustrated subscribers.

This story is worth point out because of the superintendent's quote. It's not often that any catholic figure, no matter how low on the totem pole, is willing to point out publicly that they can't choose to strictly follow church rules in some cases and not others. I would just love to see the reaction of people if the church started following the rules and banning children whose parents are divorced, used birth control or got married outside the church. I wonder how many kids would be left at the school. I personally find nothing wrong with any of those things, or the parents of the two kids involved, but the idea to ban the kids for the "sins" of the parents is just ridiculous. I wonder how many of the parents who are raising a ruckus over this have "WWJD" bracelets or bumper stickers. I don't think Jesus would make young children into outcasts.

A bunch of NFL teams made it into the playoffs with 8-8 records. In interviews, I've heard coaches and players of those teams say that their regular season record might have not been that good, but all teams have the same record now: 0-0. This annoyed me for some reason and I just realized why. It's not true! Four teams, Pittsburgh, New England, Philadelphia and Atlanta, have earned byes for the first week of the season. They don't have to win a game to make it to the second week. So, essentially, they start the playoffs 1-0.

Happy New Years!!!

And 2004, a year that has seen more changes in my life than any year since my high school graduation, ended not with a bang but with a whimper.

This year I moved away from the area I've lived for thirty years. A year ago, I hadn't been outside the western PA area for more than twenty or so days and now I'm not living there at all. I was unemployed a year ago, now I'm employed in what is probably the best company I've ever lived for. It's also close to the best work environment I've ever worked in and the only one that would be better was during the dot-com boom and that's a thing of the past. I'm also an uncle figure to a nephew who's scary in his size, intelligence and independence. And I've added two more little individuals to the group. The three are all going to be amazing to watch as they grow, each in great and totally different ways.

Okay, there were some literal bangs from fireworks, but figuratively speaking, the year went out with a whimper. I spent the New Years Eve in my apartment, watching tv, eating popcorn, drinking spiked mountain dew. It wasn't that bad, though. After midnight, I talked to friends on the phone. I think, though, if I were to make one resolution for next year, it would be to not be alone at midnight next new years eve.

But first things first, a wrap-up of my holidays. The monday before X-Mas, after work, some co-workers and I went to a tavern-type place nearby. Nothing special about the trip except that the bar is probably the nicest bar within walking distance from my place and they had buffalo calamari on the appetizers menu. That's right. I said buffalo calamari. Squid in buffalo wing sauce. It was good, but it had a flaw in it's design. Calamari has a subtle taste to it. That would explain why, if it's breaded, the breading is always light. Putting buffalo sauce over top of calamari covers up any taste whatsover of calamari.

That week it was sprung on me that there was a demo of our project in mid-January to the people from the Government who we're creating the system for. There is a minor bug in my system that came out during testing at the end of our recent design phase and, since it wasn't major, rather than put a patch fix on it, I decided to fix it in the next phase. Well, we're still in the documenting stage of the phase and I was told that they wanted it to be fixed for the demo. I'm not sure why you put in a design structure that will get the project in by deadline and then have demos in the middle of it where certain things need to be done. Anyway, mix the fix in with me writing documentation, which I'm always slow at, and learning how to write device driver code, which I've never done, and general non-motivation due to the holiday season and I'm a little behind. By the time the week after christmas came, I was burnt out.

I drove home on Christmas eve eve. Nobody at work was getting anything done, those of us who were there. Alot of people took vacation days to stretch the weekend longer than three days. I kept an eye on the weather on the internet knowing that a possible snow storm might be crossing my path on my drive home. It didn't happen. After getting past the philly rush hour, I made good time.

Went to my cousin's for Christmas eve. I now have a lot of little cousins around.j It was a general nice time. I'm getting alot better at holding babies, too. My niece cries, though, when if she realizes someone other than her mother is holding her, which is the opposite of my nephew when he was that age. He would go to anybody.

Right now, for me, Christmas is in a kind of low point. It's not waking up and unwrapping presents early in the morning. Now, we wait til my brother's family gets to my parents and then we eat dinner so it's early evening when we open up presents. By the time that happens, my nephew has opened so many gifts that there's almost no excitement to it for him. He unwraps one present and, almost without looking to see what it is, he grabs for another one. I think everything will get better when the kids are older and both are extremely active and unwrapping.

There was some fireworks at xmas. I like giving gifts as much, if not more, than getting gifts. I like to buy stuff that people wouldn't think to buy for themselves. I try to put thought into everything I buy. I don't like giving gift cards. For me, it's like giving money which always seemed to send the message "I had to give you something and I didn't/couldn't think what". Presents shouldn't be about how much money is spent. It bugs me that I still don't know my sister-in-law well enough that I usually have to resort to a gift card. The gift cards I don't mind giving are to event-type things. Like restaurants, movie theatres, etc. Because you can't wrap up a trip a movie theatre. My parents and brother like giving practical gifts.

A couple years ago, my mom actually lectured me because I didn't look I liked a gift that I didn't like. It wasn't a gift that she gave me, by the way. She said that those who gave me the gift spent X amount of dollars on the gifts and I should appreciate it. I hated her saying that because that made the gift be all about the money and not about the thought. Second, X amount of money was alot less than the combined cost of what I usually spend on presents for those that got me the gift. I swore after that that I wouldn't accept birthday or xmas presents ever again. But, by the time Christmas came around, personal and work events made me back down from it.

This year, I got my mom a electric jar opener. I thought it was a neat gift and it was also practical. When I'm home, she often asks me to open jars, although when I'm not home, she can usually manage to get them open herself. She opened up the gift. My sister-in-law loved it. My aunt loved it. My aunt's stepdaughter loved it. My brother even mentioned they thought about giving her one. The look on my mom's face was total disgust. The first words out of her mouth was her asking if it could be returned. She started talking about all the kitchen-type stuff she has and never uses and how she doesn't even have a electric can opener because it clutters up her kitchen counter. The total bluntness of her reaction, with me still remembering what she told me two years ago, made me a little angry. It didn't help that the cost of the gift was exactly X amount of dollars. The same amount she lectured me about pretending I like a gift. The gift could be returned, but the place I got it isn't around Pittsburgh, so I would have to return it. Everytime she told me to take it and return it, I would reply that she should try it. Then she goes on to lecture me about how I knew she wouldn't want it and I should buy presents that I think a person would want, not something I would want. She uses the shirt she got me as an example. She said that she got me a shirt that I would like to wear not a shirt she would like me to wear. (I forget the exact words, but that's the gist of it.) I stopped the argument there because I did't want to go into the fact that a dressy shirt is not what I want as a gift and I'd rather she get me one less thing that a shirt. In general, if a shirt doesn't have the steelers logo, a pop culture reference or a funny saying on it, it's not a good gift for me. Anyway, I didn't bring the thing back to NJ with me, but I think I'll tell her I will return it for her.

The day after Xmas, I went to the Steelers/Baltimore game. There wasn't that many fights as usually between the two teams. Last year, they played the last game of the year and, despite having no playoff implications, it was a hard fought contest. This year, despite the game being needed to help get a playoff berth, the Ravens seems to be putting in less of an effort than the game a year ago. The weather wasn't as cold as the Jets game was. It was a great game. Stopped by Bill and Terri's after the game. Spent time with them and their little one. When I came out, it started to snow. By the time I was on I-79, the roads were slippery. Saw a car on the other side of the road facing the wrong direction. I did take a slight detour, avoiding one area that has curvy, hilly, isolated roads, figuring that if I'm going to be in an accident, it best to be somewhere where I can be easily found.

On I-70, it was icy, but not overly icy. The car ahead of me on the on-ramp got on going 15 mph and topped off at about 35-mph. I got up to 50 to pass him. I was in the process of passing him when a car came up behind me and started flashing his lights for me to get out of the way. Apparently going just below the speed limit is too slow for him when the road is frozen. I wonder if he saws all the flashing lights on the other side of the road because of an accident that happened about 2 miles later.

I drove back to NJ monday morning and worked half a day. Then I worked 32 hours in the next three days because I wasn't sure if I could go into work on friday because it was a company holiday but it was my usual off-friday so I didn't get holiday hours for it.

I was feeling extremely burnt out and had no energy. So I decided that this monday, the first workday of the year, I'd being using a floating holiday so I could have a longer weekend to build back energy, do laundry, restart exercising, and get some groceries.

The highlights of this weekend: Pitt football lost (I watched it), Pitt basketball lost (I fortunately didn't watch it), Steelers won. I also saw Closer. It was a good movie as far as relationship movies that are almost all dialogue go. I think that the blunt sexual language used was supposed to make the movie edgy but it was more distracting than anything. Julia Roberts appearance was back to her normal self, making me think that my comments that she looked old and/or tired in Ocean's 12 was either intentional or due to pregnancy. Of course, she's never been anywhere near my top ten for attractive actresses and she still isn't. Natalie Portman, though looked amazing. And she still has that screen presence that was totally amazing when she was just a teenager. She also looked amazing in a bra and g-string, although I think she's shouldn't do a nude scene. She just seems like the type to look better clothed than totally naked.

By the way, I did't get steelers tickets for the playoffs, but there's a chance that I might be able to getone through a friend.

It's too late for me to go back and proofread this entry, so if there's any typos, tough. And if the writing is unclear, you should be used to it by now.