RandomFailure

Ugh! I’m soooo tired right now. All this holiday stuff plus deadlines at work equals one tired Steve. I wrapped all the presents I’m giving out tonight, and everyone on my list had at least one oddly shaped item that had me cursing the fact that I bought it in the first place. I haven’t had time to bake all the cookies I’d like, since my family has a “cookie exchange” policy; if you want certain cookies, you have to trade for them. But since my parents just had their kitchen redone and Mom just had the oven hooked up this week, it’s likely to be a one-sided trade (I give, but don’t receive).

I’m told that I’m a bit slow in noticing this (“it was so last year”), but it seems to me like every fifth person has something in that tan Burberry plaid (it’s called “Classic Check”). Either a scarf or carrying a purse.

If you like your Christmas music on the aggressive side, listen to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. My Mom was playing this, and my girlfriend blurted out, “Merry Christmas, dammit!” In particular, check out this version of O Come All Ye Faithful at the iTunes store.

And I heard this most interesting little tidbit: FYE stores raise their prices as December 25 approaches. My girlfriend was told this by a clerk at one of the Philadelphia area stores. Seems FYE likes to prey on the desperate shoppers. I know that their prices are “grab your ankles” high at normal, but to raise them as you get closer to Christmas?!? Dude, that sucks. And so does FYE.

Anyway, have a belated Happy Hanukkah, a Merry Christmas, and a Joyous Kwanzza!

And I’ve got the link to prove it! Check the link at the lower right of the page (you probably need to scroll to see it). This blog was analyzed by that site (before today’s posting) and I’m only 23% evil. I guess “I Kick Puppies” doesn’t count as being evil. Bummer.

If that title didn’t grab your attention, I don’t know what will. That phrase popped into my head some time ago, and I always thought it would be funny to have a T-shirt with that phrase on there. So I finally got my lazy self around to Googling it, and don’t you know somebody has already created such a T-shirt.

In my “research,” I think I found out where I first read about it. I believe it was in connection with a story about a T-shirt that Planned Parenthood was selling with the phrase “I had an abortion.” Apparently, all those right-wing groups were adamantly against it, and someone somewhere made the comment that putting “I had an abortion” on a T-shirt was in some way equivalent to putting “I kick puppies” on a T-shirt.

I disagree. “I kick puppies” is much funnier.

(Original post: 01 December 2004, 11:17 pm)

Thanks to the cross-promotions going on between the Philadelphia Inquirer and the local NBC affiliate, I found out that the weeknight weatherman will be presenting a forecast for the entire month of December this evening. For those of you not from Philadelphia, NBC10 is the “panic news” station. They love to use drama, bordering on scare tactics, to get you to watch their newscast. Granted, plenty of other stations may do this, but it’s pronounced here in Philly with this station. If you recall, this was the station that on a Wednesday predicted a huge snowstorm for the following Sunday which never materialized.

So what relevance does this have here? Well, I’ve recorded the newscast and will be tracking the predictions against the actual weather for that day. I’ll be posting the results on a separate page. If they’re crazy enough to try it, I’m crazy enough to see how wrong they are.

Update: After watching the broadcast, no daily predictions were given, just weekly generalities. So it really doesn’t make any sense to try to track the accuracy of a generalized prediction. No, that’s not a cop-out, just a rational decision. That’s OK, I’m disappointed, too.

While I’m currently eating some leftover apple pie (which I made; yes, I can cook), a couple of interesting things happened over the weekend.

The PA Turnpike toll collectors went on strike as of Wednesday morning, so my trip out of Philly was free. The tolls were a flat $2 as of Thursday morning. On my way home on Sunday, the woman in front of me paid my toll. This was rather odd, since I had no idea who it was, and I wasn’t even close to her vehicle for her to have been able to see me. I just pulled up to the shortest line, which just had her vehicle in front of me, and she pulled away before I even got right behind her. So thank you, mystery person!

Went shopping at the 24 hour Wal-Mart in Mt. Pocono, at about 10:30pm on Friday. The store wasn’t as crowded as I thought it was going to be, but the interior was a mess. They were in the process of straightening things up. I didn’t go looking for any super bargains (which they had early, early in the morning), but I did find a gift I was looking for, and for much less than I had thought it would be.

As usual, I ate way too much. I also didn’t run at all. So this morning’s run was the earliest I’ve gotten up in a week and the first time that I’ve run in a week. And that is a direct coincidence.

Just a few things before enjoying a late afternoon Eagles game.

• ODB is dead. Imagine my shock that it could be drug-related.
• Potential stabbing at the Vibe awards. Perp beaten to a pulp. Again, shock.
• Huge fight/general chaos at Pacers-Pistons game. Ron Artest might have a rap sheet to go along with his new rap CD. Well, his indefinite suspension from the NBA should allow him that time off he so desperately wanted. Though Ron, this is not the way to get extra time off from work.
• A rather large fight at the South Carolina-Clemson football game. C’mon guys, unless the helmets and pads come off (which did in some cases), you’re not really going to hurt the other guy all that much.
• Duke chunks another football game, this time to hated arch-rival North Carolina, ending the season at 2-9. Thankfully, basketball season is under way.
• E-mailing the Blogger folks with a problem generally gets an answer. In my case, it’s the non-functioning of the spell-checker under Safari (that’s the browser Apple includes with OS X, for those who don’t know).

I guess I should no longer be surprised about the media reporting/commenting on itself. A couple of things recently got to me about all this.

• The opening for the November 15 game of Monday Night Football. A now much publicized, but totally lame, promo for ABC’s Desperate Housewives show, which I don’t watch since it’s on opposite The Wire on HBO (the best show on TV, by the way). Eagles WR Terrell Owens gets seduced by a soon towel-less Nicollette Sheridan. Supposedly, lots of people have complained to the FCC about this. The problem I have it that I wonder how many people actually watched the MNF intro, as opposed to people who read about the intro and decided to lodge complaints. Well, there’s no way of knowing for sure. I don’t need Big Brother in my TV. Because then they would know that I had the sound muted for the first quarter while I was on the phone.
• The cross-promotion going on between The Philadelphia Inquirer and the local NBC affiliate. The paper has far too many little box ads promoting stuff on the TV news. And it’s mostly stupid stuff. Combine the sensationalized nature of this NBC station’s reporting with the decidedly slack reporting at the Inky, and this is a disgrace to any intelligent person. Despite this supposed “synergy,” there are no links between the two Web sites. That’s something you’ll only find here. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
• Saw this one in the paper today. Apparently there’s a group of cultural snobs (not that I couldn’t be one, mind you) protesting at many of today’s most talentless, vapid celebrities. They’re called HOPE (see their Web site) and their latest target is Ashlee Simpson. They are letting you trade in CDs by artists they deem worthless for a CD by an artist they deem worthy. We’ll see how this all works out. I’m sure I’ll read it in the paper.

I’ve have this song stuck in my head for a few days now, and I couldn’t figure out what it was or where I heard it. I thought it was Beyonce, which if you know me at all, is someone I would not listen to unless Clockwork Oranged into a chair. Thanks to the iTunes Music Store, I was able to find the song. And yes, it was by Beyonce – Crazy in Love. Since I can’t figure out where I heard this and when, I keep having to try to purge it from my brain. I find that the best medicine for this is Sleep Now in the Fire by Rage Against the Machine.

Cool technology note: clicking on either of the song links above will take you directly to that song in iTunes, if you have the software installed on your computer. If not, it will take you to the download page.

For my job (a patent attorney), I have to wear a shirt and tie four days a week. Casual Friday is not an over-rated concept when you have to wear a tie the rest of the week. Anyway, today I was wearing a white shirt, and managed to do two insanely stupid things while wearing a white shirt:

1. Change the toner cartridge in the laser printer.
2. Have a lunch consisting of a chicken teriyaki sandwich and fries with ketchup.

Much to my amazement, I got through the day without getting anything on me. But I changed the shirt before making pasta for dinner. My luck’s just not that good.

The problem with attempting to have a life, as I am trying to do, is that it leaves less free time for other things like reading, watching TV, and blogging (not that I ever did the latter very often, but still…). Anyhow, time for some random shots.

• I almost spoke too soon about Arlen Specter. No sooner do I post what I think is good news, Specter sticks his foot so far into his mouth, he can taste the back of his knee. The finely spun comment relates to the fact that he believes that any strong anti-abortion nominee for the Supreme Court would be unlikely to be confirmed by the full Senate. And he’s probably correct. But that didn’t stop the Far Right from unleashing a Holy Comment War on anyone and everyone who would listen. Such is the life of a reactionary, I guess.
• Football follies. Eagles get spanked by the Steelers, sending waves of nausea throughout Philadelphia. Parcells calls the Cowboys “stupid.” (And this is the team he’s coaching. Maybe he’s trying to channel some of the Red Sox’ “magic” by calling themselves “idiots.”) Giants’ lineman Michael Strahan is out for the season with a torn chest muscle. Yay!
• For some reason, Blogger’s spell checker hates my browser and/or computer. It hasn’t worked since I got the new machine. Any typos are purely the computer’s fault for not being smart enough to figure them out.

I know that there’s something I invariably forgot, but no matter. I’ll remember tomorrow morning in the shower.