Wednesday, January 31, 2007

A Wink and a Nod

My right eye is twitching. It's been twitching for the last several days and it is driving me crazy. There are two reasons why this is happening to me, first, the lack of sleep. I have not been sleeping very much because of being so busy. I get up relatively early in the morning and I don't get to bed until rather late. During the late night hours, I am most creative, so I need to harness as many of those as I can.

The second reason is eyestrain. I spend many hours in front of a computer screen. I'm going to blame this and another blog I am trying to get started. In fact, I started it yesterday but I'm waiting until I have more posts before it's "launched" in a couple of days.

Naturally, a twitching eye can be a little embarrassing in public. I can be talking to someone and my eye can begin to twitch resulting in a wink. Thankfully, no one has called me out on it, and probably no one has noticed my spastic winks. However, I'm waiting for the moment when someone reads more into it than an involuntary spasm. I hope that I will be able to put an end to it on Monday when I can sleep in. Until then, if you see me winking at you, it's not what you think and just let it go.


Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Are You Reading Me?

It's weird to learn that people other than family and friends have read my blog. It's an uncomfortable feeling that my opinions are out in the Internet ether for the entire world to read and comment. Regardless of how uncomfortable it feels I've placed myself out there for a reason; I wanted an open forum, a street corner on the Internet where I can stand atop a soapbox and talk about anything I wanted.

It's interesting, if I were out in public, standing on a soapbox, rambling on about the Barry Manilow concert I attended, I probably wouldn't get much attention. However, on the Internet someone is willing to stop and listen to what I have to say. I'm surprised to tell you that that is exactly what happened. Someone stopped and listened while I rambled on about my Barry Manilow experience.

I was checking my "Google Juice" on Google yesterday and came across Barry Fun: A positive, fun blog, about Barry Manilow. One particular post had links to different reviews of the Portland Barry Manilow concert including mine. In addition, the blogger used my concert ticket graphic, which would have been a point of contention if the blogger were stealing bandwidth by hotlinking. Plus, it's a Barry Manilow site, I had a scan of a Barry Manilow ticket; it's all good.

Then I found that "James Doogin", a friend of mine, Dugg my post called "First TV Show to DVD". It was then Dugg a few more times by other people. It never gained critical mass to make it popular, but this blog is so diverse that it's unlikely going to make me famous, unless a lot of people really like hearing about showers and sandwiches. I'm sure there aren't many out there.


Monday, January 29, 2007

Water Cooler Moment

In Oregon, we have soft water, which means our water has a low mineral content. This enables us to get a nice frothy lather when we use soap and toothpaste. Conversely, Southern California has hard water, so getting a good lather is difficult. What does this all have to do with my post? Actually, very little, but it's still all within the same family of discussion.

Yesterday evening, I had 10 minutes to take a shower before dinner was ready. I aggressively took on this challenge and hopped into the shower. Usually I can quickly attain a nice soapy lather due to the soft Oregon water. This time however, it was difficult. When I attempt the quick shower, looking back it's always difficult to lather-up. Why?

I thought about this while showering and wondered what causes this phenomenon. Could it be that the body must absorb enough water for the soap to effectively lather? Does the body need to reach a certain temperature to react to the soaps chemical structure? Would using a liquid soap over a bar of soap remedy this? All these questions cascaded through my mind.

I then began breaking down what my process is when showering. The first thing I do when I step into the shower is an initial rinse off. This ensures that my body is wet and I can maintain the soapy lather. As you might of guessed, I do a lot of thinking in the shower, so I never rush to begin the actual washing. During this time, the water heats up considerably and I am more than adequately drenched before beginning.

When I take the quick shower, this process is dramatically shortened. I do the initial wet-down, before I do the lather-up, but because of the time constraint, I don't do an as thorough job within the wet-down stage. This leaves me to believe that the body needs to absorb enough water to begin lathering the soap. Yet, the water hasn't warmed to its highest temperature. I seem to remember a time when I took a stone cold shower during a summer month before we had air conditioning, and the soap didn't react.

So, what is it? Why didn't I get the lather? Is it the water temperature, or is it the body's water absorption level?


Sunday, January 28, 2007

Geeked Out

For a couple of weeks, I've been consumed with taking all my DVDs and ripping the disc image to a hard drive. To clarify, by ripping the disc image, I would be putting an exact replica of the DVD onto the hard drive. Naturally, this idea is just a piece of a much larger and complex puzzle, because there are many different factors that go into accomplishing this.

The idea goes far beyond just putting DVDs on a hard drive. Ultimately I want to access them or any of my data from anywhere in the world. When you look at it that way, you can see the logistical nightmare this could entail. That is a focus for another day and likely another generation of hardware. For now, I'm willing to settle for anywhere in the house.

To begin, I will require a new computer. The computer is the most essential part of the process; it acts as the foundation, and dictates future expansion possibilities. If I choose the wrong platform, I could be shutting myself down even before I begin. The question is Windows or OSX. The both have their strengths and they both have their weaknesses.

The major downside for Windows is I will have to buy a computer from a manufacturer who will fill it with a bunch of useless trial programs (AOL, Napster, etc.) that, in the end, screws up the entire system when you try to uninstall them. Also, Windows tends to have many cool features that never actually work as their intended, or at all. However, Microsoft has a clear vision that is in line with my own, so it seems only natural to go with them.

The trouble with Apple is I don't see their vision. It seems only recently that they are trying to enter into the living room with their AppleTV. A great concept, but certainly not on par with what Microsoft is doing with Vista and Media PC. In addition, Mac hardware is more expensive, Mac memory is outrageously expensive and their software is not up to the task. However, the stability of the OSX platform is outstanding, while it wouldn't be easy or cheap, there would be as sense of confidence that everything would work as it should.

Beyond the purchase of a computer, there is a small issue with hard drive space. I currently have 543 barcodes in my DVD collection. I say barcodes because there are collections of movies within a single barcode, like the seven Superman movies in the Ultimate Collectors Edition. Today, I went through my entire DVD collection updating how many discs each DVD had while filing DVDs that hadn't filed. After going through and counting all the individual DVDs, the total count came to 1,114 DVDs that would be ripped to a hard drive. This does not account for dual-sided DVDs, which would slightly raise that number.

Looking at the maximum capacity a DVD can hold (dual-layer: 8.5GB; single-layer: 4.7GB) and multiplying it by 1,114, I would need approximately 10TB of space. TB stands for terabyte, which is like a 1,000GB. This is assuming of course that every DVD I own is dual-layered and using all 8.5GB. I know this isn't true because the first disc of Superman Returns only uses 7.43GB and I'm positive I have single-layered DVDs in my collection.

The cost of one terabyte of storage is expensive, and then multiplying it by ten is ridiculously expensive. The least expensive solution is a $500 external hard drive from Western Digital, for one terabyte worth of space making the final total $5000. I get the distinct feeling that I'll have to wait 10 years before I can affordably accomplish this.

Other, cheaper solutions don't involve ripping anything to a hard drive. Sony makes a device that holds 200 DVDs and hooks up to a PC. I would only need six of these, and it's half the price at $400 a pop. The problem, it's not what I want, and it is not as versatile as having digital files. Until the next waves of computers come out with HD DVD and Blu-Ray drives in them, I won't know what I'm going to end up doing. It's all dependent on whether the hardware enables the software.


Saturday, January 27, 2007

My Day

My day began like most of my days, waking up 90 minutes before I leave for work, immediately saying to myself how much I don't want to go. I promptly amend that statement by saying to myself, "I don't want to be at work today." I don't mind going to work, it's the being there that's hard. However, I just needed to get through the next nine hours and I am without a job for the following three days. Yes, for the entire month of January I decided I was going to take control of my schedule by requesting Tuesdays off.

After watching another hysterical episode of Psych, it was time to get ready. I had on a red shirt that I don't normally like to wear because it's a very large medium, so it looks big on me. Since I like to layer my shirts, I was going to put on another shirt over the red one. I looked in my hamper of clean clothes and noticed a nice blue one. Because I recently began a rather unhealthy obsession with the Superman movies, I immediately snatched the blue shirt out of the hamper and pulled it over the red. I felt like Superman, faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. It did not prepare me for what I was about to do at work.

A couple of years ago, I was asked by the general manager to paint some walls in the backroom. I first had to prime and then paint one of the walls this horrifying blue and a couple of others red. I did a terrible job, in part because I'm not an experienced painter and the drywall sucked up the paint like a dry sponge. Fast-forward, a couple years later I'm sitting in the office when the current General Manager asks what I wanted to do today. I give her my usual, "anything is fine", secretly hoping she doesn't banish me to the registers. She responds by asking me if I wanted to Spackle and paint a few walls in the backroom.

Panic started to set in because I remembered the debacle that occurred last time I attempted such a feat. Regardless, I agreed without hesitation because it would get me off the sales floor for the day and I certainly didn't want to deal with "Saturday customers". She found me the small container of Spackle, the Spackle knife and I began applying it to the wall. It was a nightmare.

There were thousands of little holes in the wall from all the tacks we used to post announcements. When I began, the wall was blue, by the time I finished spackling it had turned to a pale pink. I put on so much Spackle I thought my hand was going to fall off. The last time I spackled anything was when we first moved into the house 16 years ago. I felt like a poser, reading the instructions and not having a clue what they meant, but pretending to work the knife like a pro. Thankfully, I watched more than my fair share of Bob Ross creating snow on the happy little trees that lived in the forest.

Once I faked my way through spackling, it was time to sand it all down. I only realized I needed to sand it because my friend and professional painter, Marsha came by and said, "You're gonna need to sand it down." To which I responded, "That's next," with a confident authority. I'm certain I would have been able to find that next step as my Trading Spaces training was beginning to shine through. I found some sand paper and began sanding all the rough edges of the Spackle. Darin, another employee said we had a sanders block, or whatever he called it. He found it and gave it to me which made the job go my a lot faster.

The dust went everywhere. I didn't put anything down on the floor because I was going to sweep it up anyway and what's a little fine dust. The dust got over everything; even in places I didn't think it would. I got some canned air and blew dust off the time clock and mirror, then swept most of it up. The rest would have to be picked up by the mop that I would use at the end.

The dreaded painting was next. I hate painting because it's such a production, having to first clean the tray and roller that was sitting out with dried white paint covering the things. Next, I made a makeshift drop cloth out of a large trash bag and then painting around the edges and finally rolling out the paint. To my credit, this time it went a lot better and my end result was much better than I expected. Although I was proud of my results, the nagging feeling that my GM expected better of me was something I couldn't shake. To her credit, she didn't indicate to me that she felt that way.

I followed these steps for the other two walls I needed to paint and touch-up. I got tired of washing rollers, brushes and trays. I expressed this to Marsha and she said that I should have lined the paint tray with a trash bag, then poured in the new color, that way I would only need to clean the tray once. OMG!!! That was the most brilliant freaking idea I had ever heard! The next time I paint anything, I'm doing that. Instead, I'm going to start by lining the tray with a trash bag, so I wouldn't have to clean the tray at all.

It was a very long day of paint fumes and Spackle dust and I was ready to go home. I took my last 15-minute break 15 minutes before I had to leave. Paul, a manager that constantly joked that I missed some spots and I walked over to Starbucks to get a Supervisor some coffee. I bought a Raspberry Green Tea Blended Crème, which was pretty good even though I don't normally like the flavor of raspberries. While waiting for my beverage, I heard them announce a Hazelnut Green Tea Blended Crème and I got excited. I'm totally going to get that next time.

By the time we got back, it was time for me to clock out. Thank goodness, I don't think I could have handled another minute there without going crazy. Even though it was a rough day, it was a million times better than having to deal with customers. Come to think of it, anything is better than that.


Friday, January 26, 2007

I Hate Heelys

It isn't uncommon to walk around outside, inside, anywhere in public really, and have a child come gliding past you. This is thanks to Heelys, the worst piece of footwear available on the market today. Heelys are shoes that roll. They are a basic athletic shoe with a wheel hidden into the heel, allowing the wearer to roll by shifting their weight to their heel.

Typically, children wear these, although they are available for adults, they have become a bane of my existence, and dare I say the global society. Children are already unpredictable, reckless, thoughtless, unfocused, and ignorant of their surroundings, so some mental-health supervisor in Oregon decided that he should develop shoes allowing them to move faster. The shoes only amplify their faults making for extremely dangerous scenarios.

I know it's terrible for me to say, but as with any thing that annoys me, seeing it get the better of the child is always a welcome scene. There is nothing like witnessing a child attempting a trick then watching them pick pavement out of their teeth. Or rather, pick their teeth out of the pavement. I suppose that's the only instance in which I would find Heelys acceptable.

When I'm at work and children are racing around the store, I will make no effort in moving out of the way allowing them to crash right into me. This ultimately gets them in trouble with their parents, who probably begrudgingly bought them the shoes to begin with. It's a shame that everyone has to suffer because of these shoes.

Regardless, Heelys are skates and parents are retarded to think they are safe. Most of these so-called parents of children who wear this footwear probably require them to wear protective gear if they were on rollerblades, or a skateboard, even a bike, but they some how miss the obvious feature in the shoes they bought for their children. This goes to show that parents these days don't take an active role in their children's lives.


Thursday, January 25, 2007

An After School Activity

When it's slow at work, my mind tends to wander to the inane or ridiculous. So, while I was working in the fitting room, there was a woman with her two children, trying on clothes. Afterwards, she comes out and her children begin to run up and down the fitting runway.

Once the mother gathered her children and left, another employee looked at me with that look one makes when they see a parent not parenting. I think we've all had that look on our face at one time or another. The employee then motions me over and I see the little girl on the ground. "Did he knock her over?" I asked. She nodded yes.

This got me to thinking. Everyone is familiar with cockfights. If you're not, cockfights are an aggressive blood sport that pits two specially bred and trained roosters against one another in a pit. Often wagers are made to determine the winning cock and fleeing from police will become a favored past time. But why not substitute roosters with children?

After continuing to think about this, it was clear that a cockfight with kids was too pedestrian. It needed more structure, so I decided it needed to have the grit of Fight Club, with a UFC rule thrown in for safety. I certainly don't want any children to die that would be irresponsible. Therefore, I decided to come up with a few rules.

Rule #1: Only combatants between the ages of 2 and 10 are eligible.

Rule #2: Combatants will fight those in the same weight class.

Rule #3: Only two combatants to a fight.

Rule #4: The fight is only over when a combatant is knocked out.

Rule #5: Fights will go on for as long as the combatants are conscious.

Rule #6: Everyone goes out for ice cream after the fight.

I figure if kids are going to fight, and they are; you might as well give them an arena to do it with a few basic guidelines. These fights can be held anywhere where children are available, toy stores, play grounds, schools, you name it and a fight can take place.


Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Mr. Pressler Falls Down

For those unaware, Paul Pressler, CEO of Gap Inc. has stepped down. I'm almost sure this has nothing to do with the criticism's I raised about his leadership in my post, "AberGAPpie & Fitch". Nonetheless, I'm willing to take the credit for Mr. Pressler taking a much deserving break from destroying iconic brands. Gap Inc., you can thank me by adding a little something extra in my check next week.

Now what happens? Well, the son of the founder's of Gap Inc. is taking over on an interim basis while they scour the globe looking for someone with retail experience. Hey, wait! I have retail experience! Pick me! On second thought, please don't, although I do have a few thoughts on what I would do if I were to become the CEO of Gap Inc.

The first thing I would do is start closing stores, a lot of stores. I'm talking a third of them across all brands. After which I would focus on upgrading and cleaning up the existing stores. If you walk into an Old Navy right now, they seem rundown, especially ones that have been open for a while.

Next, I would put the brands through a product overhaul. Let me tell you what Old Navy's problem is, it doesn't know who it's customer is or why they should shop there. If someone on the street were to come up to me and ask me why they should shop for their clothes at Old Navy, or any of the Gap brands, I couldn't tell them. It certainly isn't as value priced as it once was, they are generally unstylish and occasionally obscene.

Finally, get rid of the Tri-Brand Credit Card. Yes, it saves the company a lot of money but the truth of the matter is, store cards are bad for your credit regardless of the ridiculous benefits. Instead, I would roll out a co-branded Visa or MasterCard. This would not only ensure that Gap Inc. would maintain a loyal customer base, but every time they used the card to buy gas or groceries, they would be reminded of their favorite stores, and continue to earn points towards coupons they can use at all Gap Inc. brands. Coupons incite spending.

I know, I'm a genius. It's just a shame they haven't started doing this, they could have saved themselves a lot of embarrassment. Maybe with the next CEO, they will finally get it right. Sometimes I get the feeling this company is like Donald Trump, it always tends to focus on the wrong thing.


Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Superman Marathon

I spent the better part of yesterday and this morning watching five of the seven Superman movies. It's an interesting experience watching several movies in a series back to back, because you get some continuity that would otherwise be missing. Except in this case where there is a lack of continuity within the first four movies as a whole.

Superman and Superman II really make a true continuing storyline as they were both filmed simultaneously and Superman II is an extension of the first Superman. These were, by far, the best movies of the four. I do have a couple issues with the Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, the first deals with continuity that doesn't make sense near at the end of the movie. In the Donner cut, Superman reverses everything by spinning the world backwards. After doing so, he goes back to the diner to confront the guy who beat him up after he got rid of his powers. Except, that guy shouldn't remember beating him up, and the diner own shouldn't have remembered that it cost him a fortune to fix the damage. Another issue was with Lex Luther, who was able to put too many pieces together about how to hurt Superman. Really, to go from an exploding Krypton to Kryptonite fragments being lethal? That's weak storytelling.

Then Superman III happened. There is just so much that's terrible about this movie, it's hard to get started. I suppose the first problem is casting Richard Pryor to play a computer genius. At the beginning of the movie, he can't keep a job at a fast food restaurant for a half hour, but by the end he develops a super-computer that could kill Superman! It's too far beyond ridiculous. Even more stupid is Superman going bad because of a synthetic Kryptonite Gus (Richard Pryor) develops with tar as an ingredient. Now it isn't fair of me to blame the stupidity of this movie solely on Richard Pryor, as the writing was terribly idiotic.

I originally thought that Superman III was the worse film in the series, and then I watched Superman IV: Quest for Peace. This one was practically unwatchable. I was so completely disappointed in this movie, that thinking about it almost brings tears to my eyes. How could something go this wrong! The entire concept of the movie is terrible as its primary story is preaching the importance of nuclear disarmament. As if the story wasn't bad enough, the special effects look more like special-ed effects. I can't remember a movie that looks substantially worse than the 9-year old original.

Finally, Superman Returns, thank goodness for this breath of fresh air. I think it's interesting after watching the previous four movies, which were all filmed in the better part of the 80's and then watching this movie, there is a difference. Superman Returns is a better movie than the others are. When it comes to Superman, I'm not a purist so I'm not going to align myself with the original just because it's the original. I think Superman Returns' storytelling and pacing is better than the others. This goes to show how far filmmaking has come since the late 70's and 80's.

If I were to list the movies in order of favorites, it would go as follows.

01. Superman Returns - I think it's more entertaining, pleasing to watch, polished and still has that timeless sensibility. It even makes homage to Superman: The Movie with various quotes including, "Well, I hope this experience hasn't put any of you off flying. Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel."

02. Superman II - I've seen this a million and a half times and the battle between General Zod and his compatriots is still a favorite of mine.

03. Superman: The Movie - It's number three because they spend a little too much time on his youth.

04. Superman III - Not the worst, but certainly not the best. This is kind of like Batman Forever, It's a terrible movie, but it has its moments.

05. Superman IV: Quest for Peace - Quite possibly the worst movie ever made in the entire history of cinema. There is absolutely no redeeming value, not entertaining in the least, and doesn't effectively get its nuclear disarmament message across.

There you have it, my take on the Superman movies. I still need to watch again the original Superman II as well as the extended Superman: The Movie to get a clearer picture on which versions are actually better.


Sunday, January 21, 2007

A Super Set

After a couple months of waiting, I finally picked up Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition. This 14-Disc collection includes these seven Superman movies:

01. Superman The Movie
02. Superman The Movie: 2000 Expanded Edition
03. Superman II
04. Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
05. Superman III
06. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
07. Superman Returns

I was going to get it the week it was released, but the Target I go to never seemed to have one that wasn't damaged. Ultimately, I requested a rain check in hopes they would get one that wasn't all bent out of shape. So I waited and looked them over as the received them in and they were all damaged. So, I waited some more until they stopped replenishing the set. This was a huge disappointment because my rain check was for $69.99 and nowhere else had it at such a great price.

Recently I checked Amazon.com and saw they had the set for only $70.99, a reasonable price for sure. I batted around the idea of just buying it on Amazon; the problem with buying over the Internet is you don't know what kind of shape it will be in when it arrives. Since there are no Amazon stores around, exchanging it would be a nightmare.

A few days ago, I received some Best Buy coupons in the mail giving me 10% off any regular priced movie, music or video game purchase. I took the coupon to my local Best Buy store and found they had it in stock. They were offering it for $79.99 and so I picked it up. With my coupon, it would bring the final price down to, $71.99, $2 more than Target and $1 more than Amazon. That's reasonable, considering I can't get it at Target and Amazon is kind of a crapshoot.

It's nice to know that I have all the Superman movies in one convenient package. Better still, by buying this Ultimate Collector's Edition I saved a minimum of $70 over buying each of these movies and documentaries individually. That makes the wait and price worth it, plus this aluminum case will take up far less space on my shelf than each DVD case would.


Saturday, January 20, 2007

Season Limits

I've decided there needs to be a change in television. My mom and I watch a lot of television; we would put the average viewer to shame as to how much television we consume on a daily basis. That ultimately makes us experts. We know what's funny and why it's funny. We know what's sad and why it's sad. Heck, my Mom and I can even anticipate and quote dialogue before a character even utters it. That's how much we know about television. So when I say there needs to be a change, guess what, TV execs need to listen.

The change that must occur are season limits. Often a show will go on for much longer than it should, take Friends, Scrubs and The Simpsons begin prime examples of what I mean. Honestly, how many times did Ross and Rachel have to break up and get back together? To prevent this from happening in the future, I am proposing that all television shows limit how many seasons they are on the air.

First, let me talk about the half-hour sitcom. The sitcom is notorious for staying on the air longer than it should. After awhile the jokes become predictable and stale, and I feel the writers begin grasping at straws to gain the audiences attention. They will either introduce a new character or make the show raunchier. Ultimately these tactics fail and the show is canceled. My proposal would limit sitcoms to a maximum of five seasons. I think in five seasons, the writers can develop their characters and still maintain a fresh perspective and sense of humor. Obviously some shows, like Two and a Half Men, should have been finished in three.

Scrubs is a great example of this. Now in its sixth season, Scrubs is finally wrapping things up and a sense the series is coming to an end is apparent. The problem, this season should have been last season. The jokes now are predictable and stale. Yes, Dr. Cox is going to call JD by a girls name; the janitor and JD are going to be at odds once again; Turk and JD are going to confess their love to one another. These things happen on a weekly basis and it's time to put this baby to rest.

So rarely is there a series that breaks the five-season rule and maintains that fresh sense of humor, Seinfeld and Frasier immediately come to mind. These series are so rare they should be considered the exception and not the rule. Because as we know, more series fail than succeed.

As for hour-long dramas, this type of show will normally tackle serious topics and thus characters tend to need more development because of the type of work they do. But when these series go too long, much like comedies, they in a way lose their identities. Writers begin to put characters in outrageous scenarios, like relationships or putting them in trouble with the law or even giving them a child. That is why, in order to prevent these things from happening, a season limit of seven should be put into place.

When looking at dramas currently on right now and how many have met and exceeded seven seasons (ER is in its 13th season; Law & Order, 17th season; Law & Order: SVU, 8th; CSI:, 7th), it may comes as a shock to think about losing some of your favorites. One would need to keep in mind that you may get a better experience because it would force writers to make the most of each episode. You likely would get deeper and denser storylines and the character's development would be quicker.

ER is a great example of this. This series really should have been off the air years ago. With so many cast changes, it's time to put this baby to rest. Don't get me wrong, I love ER and have been watching it since I was 15 years old, so it is a part of my personal culture. However, ER would have been just as good if it was only on for seven seasons as it is at its 13th season. Another prime example is The X-Files, which ran for a couple of years longer than it should. David Duchovny had the right idea when he decided to leave the series after the seventh season, though he did play a small role in season eight.

Reality shows are a bone of contention. As much as I don't want my daily television to be bombarded with reality shows, they are. Not just with me but for the millions of views of them around the world. These are probably to most loved and hated genre of television by most everyone. They take up more time than they should and they keep adding more every season. To keep things under control, I would limit reality television to a maximum of three seasons.

You don't know how hard this is for me to say, because you may have read my last post about the 11th season of my favorite reality television series, The Amazing Race. Regardless of how much I love this series, it did make a fatal flaw in it's eight season when they did the family edition. Talk about a jump the shark moment.

Then you have a series like Survivor. Survivor is one of those shows which rely heavily on a psychological and strategic aspect of play, but that is only half the show. The other half has the contestants running the same obstacle course, doing the same puzzles repeatedly. In addition, the game can only be played a few different ways, socially, strategically, as a leader or as a provider. I have yet to see it played any other way no matter what they throw at them. After only three seasons, it all still would have felt fresh and would have gone out on a high note.

This all may seem like a harsh way at looking at television. But it's time for something new: new shows, new characters and new storylines. These things are hard to come by when we are constantly watching the same programs year after year. My plan would shake up television, by providing a better experience for the viewer and the actor. Actors will work harder because they know that their job is temporary, and they need to land that next role. Viewers will receive better stories and well-rounded characters as well as get new experiences ever few years. And that's how it should be.


Friday, January 19, 2007

The Amazing Race: All*Stars

It is no secret that I love The Amazing Race. I love it more than any other reality show on television and arguably more than any show on television. I also hate it more than any other show on television, because I am so invested in the race and teams that I cannot relax to save my life.

When last season ended, I finally was able to take a breath. Now, the eleventh season of The Amazing Race is starting in under a month and I can't wait! This time, they are bringing back some of the most popular teams from the past ten seasons.

Season 1
Kevin & Drew - These guys were great! They made a brief cameo in the family edition of The Amazing Race as hot dog vendors. The teams were supposed to find them and ask for a clue.

Joe & Bill (Team Guido) - The smug couple who lost big time. This was the biggest upset I think of the entire series. Team Guido were in the front of the pack for nearly the entire race, but unfortunately ended up stuck in Alaska while the other teams raced to the finish line. They never officially completed the race as they were too far behind but they received a note informing them that the other teams had already finished.

Season 2
Oswald & Danny - They really surprised me because they practically ran the race very calmly. I remember specifically they would go to five star hotels and have the concierge help with reservations and directions. They even took the little money they were given in the race to go shopping.

Season 3
John Vito & Jill - To tell you the truth, all I remember of John Vito & Jill are their names.

Teri & Ian - Same with Teri & Ian. Apparently, they are the oldest team to ever finish the race.

Season 5
Charla & Mirna (Mirna & Schmirna) - These two aggravated me beyond words. They occasionally talked about their faith and then go stab everyone in the back. The most memorable moment though is when Charla, the dwarf, hoisted 50 lbs of meat on her back and carried for a quarter of a mile.

Season 7
Uchenna & Joyce - This team was tough. One specific memory I have of them was when they had to shave their heads to get a fast-forward. One interesting note, Uchenna used to work for Enron and Joyce used to work at WorldCom.

Rob & Amber - I seriously thought they were going to win. People recognized Rob everywhere, and his luck was so good, I thought them unstoppable. The best moment was when, after deciding to quit a roadblock that required the participant to eat four pounds of meat, Rob convinced other teams to quit as well.

Season 9
Eric & Danielle (Eric & Jeremy : Danielle & Dani) - Eric & Jeremy came in second and Dani & Danielle came in eighth. Now Eric and Dani are dating so they are representing season 9. I just remember Danielle and Dani were nicknamed the "Double D's" and tried to act smarter than they were. Eric and Jeremy were cocky and ultimately lost it when they couldn't finish a puzzle faster than BJ & Tyler.

Season 10
David & Mary - As much as I like them as people, they ran the race terribly. They didn't understand the point of competition and they practically took themselves out of the race. I would be surprised if they make it very far in this race with the competition they are facing, and how they ran the last race.

Dustin & Kandace (The Beauty Queens) - The chicks were fierce. One of the hardest racing teams I think I've seen on The Amazing Race. I was worried that Tyler & James were not going to make it. It's too bad they didn't make it into the final three, because that would have been the best episode ever in the history of the series.

This season is going to be awesome. You have a group of people who spent some time going over what they did wrong and what they are not going to do again. They understand the race timelines, realize their weaknesses and are racing towards that $1 million like no other season before. I can't wait until February 18 to find out how it goes.


Thursday, January 18, 2007

Another Awkward Experience

Have you ever seen a couple and wondered how these two people of obviously different leagues got together? I happened upon a couple today while I was doing my time in the fitting room. A man walks in, looking slightly above average at a quick glance, possibly average upon closer inspection, wearing all black or what I like to call, "cliché-chic". I show him to his room and go back to my task.

A few seconds later a woman walked in and said, "I'd like a room next to my husband." I thought; what husband? Certainly she wasn't talking about the man I just showed to a room. That was impossible, she looked below average whether you were glancing at her or looking her straight in the face. I walked her to the room next to her "husband". As I was opening the door, she said, "Next to that young strapping man." WHAT!? Immediately I felt enough awkwardness for both me and her husband who was probably feeling the same. I politely chuckled and promptly went back to my task.

One would hope that was the end of it, to my horror, it wasn't. It actually got more awkward. While they are both in their separate rooms, she says aloud, "My husband, I like saying that." This garners no response from him. I get the feeling they are newlyweds, but of the older variety. If you looked at the husband and thought young, he would look young. If you thought slightly older, he could pass as being in his mid thirties. The wife on the other hand, just looked old.

Next, she says, "I love you." He responds in kind, but a somewhat exasperated "I love you" like he didn't want to say it, but felt he had to. They both step out of their rooms to get each other's opinions and the wife talks about how the pants look too baggy. Yes, they're baggy, that's kind of the point when you pick out Loose fit khakis; they fit loose, so they're going to look baggy. I didn't say it, because I was just overhearing a conversation and didn't want to take part in anything that was going on there.

She continues to pick at his pants and says, "This style doesn't work for you, you're more GQ." I immediately smiled, because that applies amazingly well to their relationship. He's GQ style; she's Old Navy style. If you read GQ and you heed GQ's advice about men's fashion, you don't go to Old Navy. They both close their doors and put the next item on.

She comes out of her room first and proclaims to her husband for all to hear, "You're not going to like these pants, big camel toe." If you don't know what that is, I'm definitely not going to explain it, and I advise you not to look it up. Needless to say, I was unprepared to hear it said and I thought how utterly low class this woman was. The awkwardness in the room elevated infinite fold. Again, what did this man find attractive about his wife?

My mind turned to mush for a few minutes, trying to recover. The man comes out of his room and hands me the clothes he wasn't getting. I couldn't look him in the eye, and he probably didn't want me to. He hung around for a few minutes waiting for his troll of a wife to finish and then walks out. The wife comes out of her fitting from looking for her husband repeating loudly, "Runaway husband" in her obnoxious tone that could peel paint. If I were he, I would be running as far away from this woman as possible, but he was just standing outside the fitting rooms by their cart.

When they finally leave, I wondered how long this marriage was going to last. By the sound of it, she probably had something on him that he didn't want to get out. The only way she would keep his dirty secret was by marrying her. That can be the only explanation. He must have done something terrible to warrant such a punishment.


Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Kid vs. Cart

Because of the winter blast we had yesterday, work today was slow, but it was still with incident. As you might expect, most incidents involve children. The simple fact is parents generally do a poor job of watching their kids. You can walk into my store and there will be children climbing on ladders or fixtures, playing soccer, basketball or football, you know, just being kids.

Well, a mother walked in with her two boys trailing behind. She had a Michaels cart with an infant in a carrier/car seat where it should be and she began shopping. I would see them from time to time watching the kids climb on the side of the cart and playing around. It was no big deal, because at least they stayed with their mom, and I didn't have to dodge them at any point.

Near the end of their shopping, I'm walking out of the register area and I see the younger child of maybe 3 years old climb up on to the side of the cart. The cart tips over with the infant in the carrier/car seat still secured in the cart. I literally gasped and stood their in shock for a millisecond before running over to help the mom lift the cart off her crying son, and making sure the infant was okay. To my surprise, the mom kept a cool head, made sure the infant was all right and then tended to her crying son who stopped crying soon after.

I see kids do this all the time, climbing on the side of carts, and I think it is only a matter of time before it tips over. What I don't understand is why parents do not keep their kids from climbing on the cart. They have to know it's dangerous and the carts are not jungle gyms, they are not bolted to concrete; they move . . . and tip. I know this is absolutely terrible of me, but I refuse to warn parents because;

a. Parents should know better.
b. I'm not the parent.
c. Hard lessons need to be experienced to be learned.

If I were to warn them about the dangers of carts, how would I go about doing that? Could I say, "I don't know kids, but I know carts and these tip over when kids climb on them." I don't know. If you confront the wrong parent, you could get a lecture about how their little precious isn't doing anything wrong. I would do almost anything to not have to deal with that.


Tuesday, January 16, 2007

"Winter Blast"



It's snowing outside. I took this picture of what it was like outside earlier this morning. The news stations are all excited calling this snowfall a snowstorm. Since we don't get a lot of snow like other parts of the country, news channels consider any snowfall a chance to wheel out Storm Watch 2007 and have their reporters out in the field informing the public of all the dangerous road conditions.

What I love most is that Storm Watch is very climate specific. Take for instance Los Angeles that will have round the clock reporting when a little rain falls. Here in Oregon, it rains all the time, so unless there is massive flooding a little rain gets nothing more than a comment in passing.

To see just how bad it is out there, check out this video of drivers sliding down a hill bouncing off cars and poles like a pinball machine. You may consider this first-rate stupidity, as many of these drivers were warned not to drive down that particular hill. It's on days like today where the most stubborn make their appearance. Why can't people just stay home?


Monday, January 15, 2007

Sandwich of the Year!

IMG_1123.JPGLook what I had for lunch today! It is the biggest sandwich I have ever made, thanks to the very large pieces of bread I used. I made this egg bread myself. It was the subject of my controversial post, "Bread is Life". The bread turned out fantastic, although it didn't quite look or taste like I had originally envisioned it; however, the texture was a bit chewier. Each slice of the bread was as thick as two slices of the grocery store ilk one would buy.

On it I had to put more spicy brown mustard than I normally would due to the large slices of bread. Additionally, I also had to really beef up the amount of turkey because I didn't want the fixin's to be completely enveloped by the bread. There really is a fine balance when it comes to sandwich making. Too much of one thing can overpower the flavor of the sandwich. In order to avoid having my turkey sandwich taste like a bread sandwich, I needed to take care that my turkey distribution on the sandwich was high enough. You will also notice I put sprouts on it as my vegetable. In terms of turkey sandwiches, there isn't a lot of variety. Some might ad tomatoes, avocados, maybe some lettuce and bacon. Since I'm too lazy to cut these fruits and vegetables up, let alone look for them, I decided to leave them off.

So how did it taste? Let me just say, there was a lot of bread . . . a lot. My mouth wasn't wide enough until I got past the crust. There was more sandwich than I thought I could eat in the beginning, about three quarters of the way through, I felt I was getting full, but I persevered and crossed the finish line. I felt like I achieved something, eating one slice of this bread is difficult, but eating two with sandwich fixin's, makes me believe I should be in some competitive eating event.


Sunday, January 14, 2007

First TV Show to DVD

A couple of weeks ago I was entrenched in thought about which was going to win the format war, Sony and their Blu-Ray Disc or Toshiba's own HD DVD. Not that it really matters right now, as I will support neither until it is clear which provides me with a better viewing experience. However, the format war is not what this post is about, I still want to address television shows on DVD.

You may remember on January 4, I wrote a post about my DVD Dilemma, giving you some insight on my obsession with television shows on DVD. While I was thinking about the Blu-Ray and HD DVD format war, I was wondering which complete television season would make it onto those formats first. Upon thinking about that, I then began to wonder which television show made it to DVD first.

I spent some time looking around the Internet and found a message board post about the subject. To my dismay, most of the contributors misunderstood the topic and began rattling off the television shows they first bought on DVD. That of course did not help me. Some who understood the topic believed that it could have been the X-Files, but after some digging, I found that to be false.

Today, after a few clicks of my mouse, I may have found the answer. I came across an article by Greg Hernandez of the Los Angeles Daily News called, "TV shows old and new send DVD sales soaring". In this article he says, "It began a few years ago when HBO began selling entire seasons of its hit shows "The Sopranos" and "Sex in the City" in boxed DVD sets."

I checked with Amazon.com, which specifies the DVD release date on the product information page. The Sopranos was listed as being released on December 12, 2000 and Sex and the City on May 23, 2000. It looks like Sex and the City may have been the first television series to make it to DVD as I have yet to find any releases that predate it.

Now we have entered a new generation of media formats so we can easily figure out what the first series will be on Blu-Ray and HD DVD. Because I am such a nice guy, I will you spare you the suspense. For Blu-Ray, it is none other than The Sopranos Season 6, Part 1, which was released on December 19, 2006 a little over 6 years since season one was released to DVD. As for HD DVD, Smallville The Complete Fifth Season came out first on November 28, 2006 trumping the HD DVD release of The Sopranos Season 6, Part 1 on December 19, 2006.

I think this mystery is solved as it was bugging me for a while. Of course, if anyone knows of a TV to DVD release that comes before Sex and the City, I hope you let me know.


Saturday, January 13, 2007

Old Navy Ethics

It's funny how disappointment works, somebody you care about or respect does something that you don't approve of, and rather than get angry you feel this numbing pain like an awful truth was just revealed. For me, disappointment is one of the worst emotions I can feel, some respect is lost and I can't bear the thought of associating with them for a while. Disappointment crossed my emotional threshold today.

My Old Navy is currently having a clearance event in which all of our clearance is an additional 50% off the clearance price. It's an event that stirs a community. Throughout the year, people constantly come into the store and ask when the next clearance sale will happen. So this event is what it is, an event. When it happens, word spreads quickly as the lucky few in the beginning call their friends, who call their friends who then call their friends, until the traffic in the store is so high that it can be difficult to navigate.

This event also brings in the people who want to take advantage of our generous price adjustment policy, which allows someone to bring in their receipt and receive a price adjustment on merchandise they purchased within a 14-day period. Except this time, and from what I was told by a manager, we were never supposed to give price adjustments to anyone during these clearance events unless it was on full priced merchandise. Nowhere is this information posted for the customer. Not on any of the signs we have littering the store, and not on our return policy clings we have at the register counters. In fact, the price adjustment policy clearly states, "We offer a one-time price adjustment when an original sale receipt is presented within 14 days of the date of purchase."

This raises some ethical questions. Should a company be allowed to temporarily change a public affecting policy whenever it is in their best interest? When temporarily changing a policy, is it the responsibility of the company to notify the public of the change? Without any notification of a change, should the company be held to its posted policies?

After thinking about these questions for a few minutes I concluded that it was unethical for Old Navy not to allow price adjustments on clearance merchandise. I spoke to my available manager about this and his only retort was about how it would affect our raises. I replied that I was no longer eligible for a raise so that didn't bother me. This quick conversation left me concerned that a leader in my store is willing to forgo ethical behavior because it might affect his raise.

For a company so committed to the "customer experience", I'm surprised that Old Navy would institute this pseudo-policy without at minimum a sticker, notifying customers of the change. My disappointment lies within a company that would rather make a quick buck than instill public trust; trust it needs now more than ever. My disappointment lies within people willing to take part in unethical behavior because they are either too afraid to speak up or they see how much they can gain over the short term.

I never would consider myself the poster child for ethical behavior, but I always strive to make the right decision. Here, a right decision by my store could have been made and wasn't. And so, I sit here with that numbing pain, hoping that it will go away within the next three days so I can walk into that store glad to be there. I have a feeling I won't.


Friday, January 12, 2007

Bread is Life

I would have posted this yesterday, but the wounds were too fresh for me to relive and so tonight, I bring you a story of disaster. I came home from work at 4pm yesterday, took off my two sweatshirts, turned on Oprah in the kitchen and began gathering the ingredients for egg bread. I make bread using a bread maker that was purchased during my time at HomePlace, America's Bankrupt Home Decor SuperStore. I just recently began doing this after a few year break, but seeing that bread maker sitting in the corner made me long for the smell and taste of fresh, home baked bread.

There are three essential parts of the bread machine, you have the machine, the pan and a paddle that mixes and kneads the dough at the appropriate time. I begin dumping the ingredients in the order it states in the recipe book, all the while sobbing uncontrollably during a segment of Oprah. I was so tired after coming home that it took me nearly a half hour to assemble all the ingredients and get the pan in the bread maker to begin baking. I leave the kitchen and take my shower.

Once I finished my shower, I sat at my computer and began writing the post directly below this one entitled, "Shake It Like A . . ." My mom comes home, an hour later she walks into my room and tells me the bad news, I had forgotten to put the paddle into the bread pan. Disappointment flooded my consciousness and I walked into the kitchen to see what was going on. I lifted the lid and all the ingredients were sitting as they did 2 hours before in the same heap. The pan wasn't even hot! Nothing had happened! We were both disappointed it was way to late to begin another loaf as it takes about 3 hours to bake.

That wasn't all the bad news I received that evening. Apparently, when I started the dishwasher that morning, a spoon fell through the hole in the silverware basket keeping the water jet from rotating and cleaning the dishes. Some of the dishes were clean, but all the silverware had to be run through the dishwasher again as well as a few plates. This news may not have been life altering, but I just didn't feel like hearing that something else had gone wrong.

Today was much better. I was able to remember the paddle, so this evening we were able to have the bread we longed for last night. Plus, I had sloppy joes for dinner, and that's always a good thing.


Thursday, January 11, 2007

Shake It Like A . . .

Since I started officially blogging a few years ago, I began looking for things to blog about in my daily life. Sometimes there are big events, like concerts or holidays, then there are those small moments that may seem insignificant to someone else, but to me I find interesting.

I had a great example of one of those insignificant moments today. I spent the greater part of my last 4 hours at work in the fitting room, a job I've come to enjoy because people tend to leave you alone. About 30 minutes before I was off, a woman and her daughter come in and I open a room for the daughter and then go back to my post where I see the woman drinking her Jamba Juice and holding her daughter's cup while she tried on clothes.

The silence was awkward until she cut it with a bit of idle small talk, then once again we were in silence. I'm looking at the fitting room door in front of me, reading for about the millionth time the poster cling we have advertising the Old Navy Card, when out of the corner of my eye I see the woman shaking her cup back and forth.

I thought this was the most intriguing thing I saw today. Everyone does this! Everyone, when coming upon the completion of a shake or smoothie, will give it a little shake back and forth to fill in any air pockets that may have developed while drinking. They will repeat this until they sucked up every last drop of their shake or smoothie. Who started this trend? Did someone need to start it, or are we programmed to give our Styrofoam or plastic cups a quick jolt when all we are sucking up is cold air? I think this is a bit of interesting human behavior.


Wednesday, January 10, 2007

AberGAPpie & Fitch?

It seems the only ones falling into the Gap, is the Gap. On January 8, Gap, looking to explore "strategic alternatives", hired the investment firm Goldman Sachs to look into a possible sell. Emily Schmall of Forbes.com has written an article called, "Who'd Buy The Gap?" which puts blame on CEO Paul Pressler for the decline in store and clothing quality. This should not be news to people familiar with Paul Pressler and his reign at Disney where he did the same thing, cut costs at the expense of the overall customer experience and satisfaction.

I first heard the news this morning and was stunned at the thought of Gap being owned by another corporation. Different retailers spun around in my head, Abercrombie, Target and then my Mom this evening said the dreaded word, Wal*Mart. A feasible option as Gap's asking price is $18 billion-plus, but one that would leave me shaking, lying in the fetal position in some corner of the store screaming "WHY GOD WHY!"

While this comes as a shock, it doesn't come as a surprise. Everything that Emily Schmall says in her article is true. I walk into my store, and it's clear that updating it with the newer fixtures, leveling out and refinishing the floor, adding a fresh coat of paint would breathe some new life into my old store. As for the quality of clothing, over the past five years, I have known a marked decline in quality. Without pointing out specifics, even I'm afraid of bending over in a pair of Old Navy denim.

I, as well as many of my co-workers are eager to hear what corporate has to say about all this. Visiting GapInc.com gives no indication that this was going on. The only recent press release is regarding Senior Management changes at Gap and Old Navy brands, that can't be a positive factor given this recent news. Is Gap going to sell? Are they splitting up the brands? How will this affect the employees, our benefits and our jobs? Gap's decision to not comment on the story doesn't bode well for the brand, but I'm eager to see how all this plays out.


Tuesday, January 9, 2007

iPhone Failure Imminent?

I just got through watching the Apple's Macworld keynote address introducing the groundbreaking iPhone and it is quite impressive. I mentioned in a previous post some of the features and the price point at which it will be sold, $499 (4GB) and $599 (8GB) with a 2-year agreement. It has me very excited and I certainly want to pick one up, the internet capabilities alone has me salivating as well as all the other cool features.

What doesn't have me salivating is the price. Yes, the handset alone is expensive but for what it can potentially do, I think your getting a good deal. And that's sort of the problem here. The amount of services one would have to subscribe to in order to take full advantage of the iPhone could leave you wondering why you made the "investment" in the first place. This is coming from an average consumer, not a business professional.

This is exactly what Apple wasn't thinking about when developing this phone; they weren't concerned about the average consumer. I decided that I would go onto the Cingular site and price the services that would allow you to use the iPhone as it was intended. Since there are no details about the pricing plan for the iPhone's services, this is just a rough estimate of what you could conceivably spend a month.

Plan
Nation 450 /Rollover: $39.99 - You would need to start with a calling plan. I chose the Nation 450 with Rollover. This plan gives you 450 anytime minutes, 5000 nights and weekends and unlimited Mobile to Mobile minutes. This was the cheapest plan they had for the handset that I picked, a comparably priced Treo 750.

Services
PDA Connect Unlimited: $39.99 - This service gives you unlimited Internet and e-mail access. The iPhone relies heavily on the Internet through it's e-mail client and Safari browser as well as Google Maps and it's variety of Widgets; I actually think the $39.99 price point is on the cheap side considering the amount of data you would need to push through.

Message Starter 200 Messages: $4.99 - You will likely have to sign up for a text message service in order to use the iPhone's SMS function. Because of the iPhone's attractive and robust SMS application, upgrading to the more expensive 3000 Message Extreme service for $19.99 would be necessary.

Final Cost
$84.97 - $99.97 a month to use Apple's newest breakthrough technology. This doesn't account for other features like the Visual Voicemail that allows you to choose which voicemail you want to listen to.

Again, these are based on current Smart Phone service pricing, which do not include MEdia Bundle plans, which would bring the cost down a little. On the other hand, Cingular could have special plan packages for iPhones, to make owning an iPhone more affordable.

Could you buy the iPhone just to have the next generation iPod? Probably, but why would anyone want to spend $599 for a 8GB iPod? I sure wouldn't.


iPhone a Reality

A few days ago, I was standing in the shower thinking about iPods. I tend to do a lot of thinking in the shower; probably most of my brilliant ideas come from me standing in the shower. Anyway, I'm standing there thinking about when will the release of the next iPod be. I was hoping that it would happen within the next year as the unveiling and launch of the next iteration of this groundbreaking product had been delayed, and there was only speculation about it's functionality.

Well, it seems the iPhone is the new iPod. Looking over the iPhone, I am totally and completely infatuated with it. It looks beautiful, it plays my music, it plays video, it has a 2MP camera, does the Internet, runs Mac OSX with the inclusion of widgets, pretty much anything you need to keep in touch and enjoy your media. However, until I listen to Steve Jobs talk about it, I'm somewhat disappointed that this isn't an iPod.

One of the few downfalls of this remarkable new device is the 8GB hard drive. I think it's somewhat small for something that will store photos, music and video content in addition to widgets and contact information. The next disappointing thing is it only has up to 5 hours of talk, video and browsing. On the other hand, for what it does, 5 hours is pretty good. The next disappointment is the price, $499 with a two-year agreement for the 4GB model, $599 with a two-year agreement for the 8GB model. Ouch! That's the price of a PS3! To be quite honest, I think I would rather have a PS3.


A Night of Music . . .



Last night my Mom and I went to the Barry Manilow concert at the Rose Garden for "An Evening of Music and Passion". Okay, that sounds a little creepy, but that's what it says on the ticket. Nevertheless, just to get my feelings about the concert out of the way before I give a slight play-by-play, it was awesome! This was quite possibly the best concert I have ever attended and I don't consider myself a huge fan of the Manilow. That isn't to say I don't like his music, but I wouldn't go looking for his CD or anything, until now.

Before arriving at the Rose Garden, Mom and I both contemplated pricing for programs. Now a program is supposed to be something that will tell you who is performing, maybe some information about their career and a slew of advertisements. Going in, Mom and I thought $8 was going to be the program's price after nixing the $5 price point we originally thought. I walk into the building and look across at a souvenir stand where you would pick up a program and see a handwritten sign that says $20. I'm floored, I tell my Mom who is also shocked at the price. The man scans our ticket and we walk in and I notice he is selling other souvenirs and there were other handwritten signs with dollar amounts on them. Phew, there was no way the program costs $20, that would be ridiculous. We get closer to the stand and I look at all the prices, and as it turns out, the program is indeed $20. I'm thinking, only a complete fool would by a program for that much, and by the looks of things, there were a lot of fools.

We continue our walk around to our entrance looking for a restroom my Mom can stop into to freshen up. The first ladies room we passed had a herd of gentlemen standing around waiting for their wives or girlfriends to emerge. The scene was funny, because there were a lot of gentlemen standing around more than average. And from the hourly reports my Mom gave me about the ladies room, they were full.

Barry Manilow has a very established fan base. Most of the fans are ones he's had since he began his career 35 years ago. Naturally, the average age of the attendees had to be 42. Everywhere you looked, there were older women, and the men they dragged to the event standing, sitting and conversing with those around them. Some of them came in packs, they all were chattering on as women, and especially older women do.

Now, with the advent of the cell phone, one could conceivably get into contact with practically anyone at anytime, a concert is no exception. While Mom and I were seated in our seats before the concert began, looking around we noticed a bunch of people standing up, talking on their phones with friends who are also in attendance, waving maniacally in a general direction. I suppose it is only natural to think that the possibility of someone you know must be among the thousands in attendance. I did.

A few minutes passed and a local DJ came onto the stage holding a child living with Cystic Fibrosis, thanking us for contributing to the cause. The little girl was cute and slurred into the microphone hoping we enjoy the show. The crowd "awwwwwwed" in unison and within a couple of minutes the concert began.

Barry comes out and the crowd goes wild. You have to understand that a concert with Barry Manilow is going to be different from one say with, Justin Timberlake. There isn't going to be pyrotechnics, beat boxing, and a posse of 100 synchronized dancers. You are going to have a man with some back-up singers, a band and an orchestra. That difference speaks volumes and differentiates someone who has been performing for 35 years from someone who has been doing it for barely 10. The younger generation of musicians, focus on creating a spectacle. Barry Manilow focuses on creating a show.

The first half of the concert had him singing a few of his classics and then singing songs from his compilation CD's of 40's and 50's music. My mom and I were afraid he would do that, but it was great because he did it in a way that was entertaining and the fact that Barry was singing it made it okay. At one point, he sang "Moonlight Serenade" and brought a member of the audience up to the stage to sing and dance with her. It was funny to see her face as she hugged and danced with the Barry Manilow.

During intermission, they began handing out glow sticks to everyone. It was so long since Mom and I ever held a glow stick that we weren't exactly sure how to operate it. I guess this says a lot about our ages since the people behind us also didn't know how to make it glow. I seemed to remember that you have to break it, but the idea seemed so counter-intuitive that I thought that I would literally break it and fluid will spill all over me. I finally just bit the bullet and cracked it and it began to glow. Mom soon followed suit.

Music played in the background during the intermission, and moving the glow sticks back and forth to the music took the place of the wave. Probably a good idea because I'm not sure how many hips would have been able to handle the up and down motion required to perform a wave. So, we all sat their, glow sticks in hand singing along to the music. Then the lights dimmed and the intermission was over.

It was amazing seeing all these thousands of glow sticks glowing the dark, waving back and forth while Barry sang songs from the 60's and 70's. Before beginning his 60's throwback, he sat in a chair, reminisced about the 60's, took one of those "funny cigarettes" between his index and thumb, and took a drag. It was not one of those "funny cigarettes". Or was it? He did act a little strange for a couple of moments.

If you haven't already guessed, concerts are a magnificent place to people watch. You have thousands of people crammed into a small space, excited about where the evening will go. If you add a little alcohol into the mix, memories are made, as was the case of an older gentleman who got excited over some of the songs. He stood up dancing as only the old can, arms out and without rhythm. I laughed hysterically bringing me almost to tears. What made it better was he had two glow sticks in his hands making this closest to a rave he was ever going to be. Moreover, because he was standing in the aisle the attendant for our section came running down and tried unsuccessfully to get the man to move back into the row. I could see that she too was laughing along with the rest of the section.

For me there were a couple of songs that he had to sing to make me happy, Mandy and Copacabana. To my delight, he sang both making this the best concert I have ever been to, not just because he sang those songs, or sang any songs for that matter. If he stood up on stage and sang the phone book it would have still been the best concert, because he doesn't just perform music he intimately connects with his audience unlike anyone other performer I have seen. That is what makes a legend.


Monday, January 8, 2007

About Who? About Me?

I keep reading about how to increase my blog traffic. One of the primary ways is including an "About" page giving some insight into who I am and what my blog is all about. They also say adding a picture will supposedly gain me some credibility, as people like to see about whom they are reading.

This is all very interesting and I suppose I could add a picture of myself, but why do I need an about page on a blog that is all about me? My whole blog is an about page! What could I possibly say that I haven't already covered in a previous post? Should I provide you with my name? Age? Gender? Maybe my location? If you haven't already figured it out, you likely know my name and gender as I don't know many women named Jason. If you didn't, well, you do now.

However, the idea of über-personalizing my page with a severe amount of personal information is an intriguing one. I am a very complex person with personal policies that I would love to make public, not only for your enjoyment, but also to keep them straight in my own mind.

I suppose the question is do I care if I increase my traffic. Not really, this blog was never meant to be for anyone but me. I'm certainly not making money from it as you can see from the lack of annoying Adsense links and banners littering the site. Do I like it when people visit and read what I have written? Sure! I certainly cater to whoever might be reading it by trying to make my posts as interesting as possible. Too many times I have come across painfully boring blogs and I undoubtedly don't want to be a member of that webring. To remedy that, I attempt, if the posts warrants, at being clever, charming and amusing as much as possible. Only you can tell me if I succeed.


Sunday, January 7, 2007

Three-Ring Churchus

Church today was chock-full of funny little scenarios and events that I thought I would share with you. First, as Mom and I filed into our row, Chuck a very nice older gentleman came over to hand us the "worship folder". I caught a glimpse of his nametag, and for the first time I realized his last name. I'm not sure if he always put his last name on it, but on this particular day, it stood out. I looked over to my Mom and asked, "Is Chuck's last name Hull?" She nodded and I said, "So his name is Chuck Hull." We both chuckled.

After the singing ended, we sat down and Mom opened up her "worship folder" to take a look at all the fun and interesting things that are going on. Upon the opening of the folder, the sermon notes fall. If it were anyone else and not Mom or I for that matter, the notes would have just fallen to the floor without incident. Instead, the notes fall and just before hitting the floor, swoops out flying under the chair in front of her and glides to a stop one row up. Mom and I look at each other with panic and embarrassment in our face. The gentleman in the row, gets up out of his seat, bends down and picks up the paper then hands it back to my mom.

Once the announcements were read by the new jeans wearing Pastor of Community Connections and Men's Ministries, he instructed us all to stand up and greet those around us. This is the worst part of going to church in my opinion, but like a good Christian, I stood and began greeting and shaking hands. I shook one hand, then another, finally coming to a gentleman named Ho. Since we all wear nametags, I commonly will say, "Hi [Person's Name]!" This time I had to stop before I broke into song.

Finally, this week was Communion a ceremony that I have come to dread since my hysterical laughing incident several months ago. A couple of times, I've assisted in handing out the "body" and the "blood" and loved how structured the ceremony was. There was a group of people that would come out with a plate full of "body" and "blood" and they would follow a pattern by handing a plate to every other row. The whole thing would typically go smoothly. This time the pastor at the front asked if a dozen or so people would volunteer to hand out communion and ensure everyone was served. A bunch of people got up and headed to the back to grab a plate. What proceeded was a nightmare. It was an unorganized mess of people literally running around the church to grab the plate from the other end of the row. It seemed that everyone was working the left side of the church, while only a few were attending to the right. For something that was supposed to be a solemn moment of communion with God, it turned into a three-ring circus of people swinging from the rafters.

It was probably one of the more entertaining Church experiences I've had in awhile. I just hope they don't do this to communion again, because it was distracting and completely detracted from its meaning.


Tigger Gone Bad . . . Again

Tigger, the beloved character from the Winnie the Pooh children's books and popular Disney movies have once again got in trouble with the law. You may remember back in 2004 when he was accused of fondling a 13-year old girls breast during a photo session. Apparently, the bad boy in the Disney family has moved on to assault. During yet another photo session, a favorite for the attention starved star, Tigger was recorded intentionally hitting a young child "on or about the head".

When asked why he continues to get into trouble, Tigger commented, "I'm tired of playing second fiddle to that fat, stoned bear. It's time I get a little ink." From Tiggers comment, it appears that unless you want your child to get sexually or physically assaulted, you should probably keep clear of this bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy tiger.


Saturday, January 6, 2007

Library Treasures



I love the library because on more than one occasion I walk away with gems like the one above. The music may be terrible, in this case, it's average, but the covers are fantastic. This particular CD is entitled, "Not Your Mother's LDS Music". LDS as you may know, stands for Latter Day Saints and so this CD is supposed to squash any preconceptions of religious music.

There are a couple of things other than the title that makes this cover hysterical. The first is found on the back cover, it states, "You may think you know what 'LDS Music' sounds like, but if you haven't heard these great artists, you don't." Really? After inserting the disc into the player, my Mom said about the first song, "This sounds familiar." I responded, "This is what all Christian music sounds like." I knew exactly what to expect and I wasn't disappointed. What's more, I'm sure no one who picks this CD up would be that surprised by the pop-styled harmonies and acoustic sound.

Another rather interesting note is the sticker in the upper left corner of the front cover used for categorizing the CD and its alphabetical placement. It says, "Christian Not". For a religion that has struggled to be known as Christian, I find it more than a little ironic that an LDS CD bears this sticker that suggests otherwise.

I love it when all these elements occur in one incidence, a great title, a hysterical blurb on the back cover and an ironic sticker. This is a trifecta of brilliance.


Friday, January 5, 2007

Sugar Shack

I have taken it upon myself to rid my house of all sweets left over from the holidays, by consuming them in a short amount of time. For the past few days I feel like I have eaten nothing but cookies and candy, and I'm growing literally sick and tired of it. I went into work early this morning and for lunch had some soup, then came home and gorged on leftover candy and some fudge. To begin, I'm not a huge fan of the fudge because it is this tiny cube of condensed sugar and chocolate. In other words very little goes a very long-long way.

Now I'm sitting her typing this up, my body is all jacked up on sugar and my mind is ready to crash. To be honest, I'm not even seeing letters race across the screen as I type, all I see are puppy dogs and rainbows. If this is what it means to be high on drugs, I certainly don't want anything you fools are selling.

I can't wait to find out what we are having for dinner since this is the only meal I will eat today that has some substance. On my walk home from work, I did think about stopping by Panda Express and picking up lunch but decided against it because I knew I had "work" to do. In addition, I didn't want to spend the $6 for a Styrofoam plate of crap; by crap, I mean greasy fast food.

Thankfully, this ordeal is almost over. I have some dark chocolate that needs to be eaten and some Fererro Rochers to break into than I'm done. I certainly won't eat it all tonight, but it will be nice to finish it off within the next couple of days.


Thursday, January 4, 2007

DVD Dilemma

I have a passion for entertainment, everything entertainment, television, movies, music and especially video games. Along with this passion for entertainment, I also have an illness; I am compelled to complete sets. I mean sets of anything and everything, if it comes in a series than I have to collect the entire series. The solution is for me not to buy or receive anything that comes in a series or set, hardly a realistic solution.

Naturally, DVD's are one of the biggest culprits that I suffer with on a daily basis; and it is daily, most notably television series that are released to DVD. As it stands I am currently collecting 41 television series on DVD. While many of them are completed because they where either canceled or ended their run, there still are several that are still going strong. Below is a list of all the television series I am collecting. The series in bold are completed, the italicized series are up-to-date with the current season purchased and the series in regular text means I am missing one or more seasons from the series.

01. 3rd Rock from the Sun
02. The 4400
03. Airline
04. Alias
05. The Amazing Race
06. Angel
07. Arrested Development
08. Battlestar Galactica
09. Bones
10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
11. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
12. Curb Your Enthusiasm
13. Dead Like Me
14. Ellen
15. ER
16. Firefly
17. How I Met Your Mother
18. Keen Eddie
19. Lost
20. Millennium
21. The Muppet Show
22. The Office
23. Once and Again
24. Oz
25. Prison Break
26. Robot Chicken
27. Seinfeld
28. Sex and the City
29. The Simple Life
30. The Simpsons
31. Six Feet Under
32. The Sopranos
33. South Park
34. Spider-Man: The '67 Collection
35. SpongeBob SquarePants
36. Supernatural
37. The West Wing
38. Will & Grace
39. Wonder Woman
40. Wonderfalls
41. The X-Files

If you are not aware, maintaining 41 television series is no easy task especially when you have The Simpsons in your collection and you don't see an end in sight. I'm not the only one in my family who also suffers from the need to complete sets, my Mom also suffers from it but probably not as extreme as I. What's frustrating is that some of these I don't even want anymore like SpongeBob SquarePants. WHAT WAS I THINKING!!! Looking at the list again, SpongeBob is probably my biggest regret, I watched it and it wasn't that funny. Possibly because I'm not five years old even though I may act like it on occasion.

I think the hardest thing I'm struggling with is the cost of some of these seasons. Take The Sopranos with Part 1 of the 6th season costing $80! I don't get the full season for $80?! What a rip off! This is par for the course when it comes to series from HBO and Showtime.

Another hard thing to deal with is that some of these production companies are not releasing the entire series on DVD. Take for instance, The Amazing Race, which currently has only two of its ten or so seasons out. This is also the case for Once and Again which currently has only two of its three seasons released. For someone who needs complete series or sets, this kind of behavior drives me insane. I hope that in the future, these companies realize that people like me need the sense of closure that completed series give us.


Wednesday, January 3, 2007

See You Later

As much as retail sucks, there are those moments of glimmering enjoyment that cannot be recreated in an office setting. Most of those moments include customers and their sometimes-unabashed honesty when angry about something. Some customers will begin yelling and screaming at you as if you are the problem and not them, others will passive aggressively under their breath tell you they are never going to shop there again. We had one such customer today.

Unfortunately, she wasn't my customer but I was able to listen in on the entire conversation as I staffed the register next to her. The customer wanted to return a puffy-vest; she did not have her receipt but used a credit card to purchase the item. She also had in her possession a gift receipt. The cashier looked up her transaction using the customer's credit card and proceeded to complete the return. The customer found out through the course of the transaction that she would be receiving approximately $18 for the vest. She was sure she paid more for it and continued to argue with the cashier, who silently continued with the transaction. The customer began and continued to say repeatedly that she wasn't going to shop at Old Navy anymore and that she didn't shop at other stores for the same reason. This was in hope to get a reaction from us which none of us gave her.

Now, while I could go on about how the customer treated the employee and the supervisor that came around, I want to talk about another aspect of the argument. She clearly stated that she wasn't going to shop at Old Navy anymore. Can I hold her to that? I imagine me asking her to step to the side so I could take her picture to ensure that she doesn't accidentally come in and buy something. I know that would never happen, but I'm almost positive I could get away with saying something like, "I'm sorry your last transaction here is a negative one, but think of all the money you would save by not shopping here!" I would accompany this with my disarming charm and friendly smile.

In case you were wondering, the customer I spoke of before went home to get her original receipt and came back. She was wrong and the store was right so she was very apologetic about her attitude and thanked us for being so nice about the situation. I suppose we'll let her come back if she still wants to.


Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Resolutions

Let's talk resolutions. During one time or another throughout our lives, we've resolved to change something about ourselves for the better. Sometimes we succeed, most of the time we fail, but in the end it was fun trying. Now we have entered a new year, 2007, an opportunity to let ourselves down once again because we didn't exercise quite as much as we hoped, or those 20 lbs. we planned to drop ended up being 30. Luckily for me, I never made fitness goals as part of New Years Resolutions, instead I make realistic goals. So let's look at what my resolutions were last year and how I did on them.

1. Pay off my credit cards! While I never pay a dime of interest, I still don't want all this debt. So, this year I am going to pay off my debt and cut up all but one credit card. Naturally in order to keep my excellent credit rating, I won't be closing any accounts.

I did pretty well on this one. I must admit that when I made this resolution, I had nearly paid off all my debt, so accomplishing it was an easy task. Then I got an Xbox 360 and that added some debt to my Best Buy card. Thankfully that is nearly paid off, which means I will once again be debt free.

2. Update this website daily. Over the past month or so, I have been neglecting this website. This was mostly due to sheer lack of time. Now that life is slowing down, I am going to be vigorously updating this site.


I thought I would be able to do this, but when you have nothing to talk about, it makes little sense in posting something. You obviously come here to read about the interesting goings-on in my life, if nothing is going on, then there shouldn't be anything for you to read.

3. Update DisneyFunClub.com weekly. I really want to get my trip reports finished.


This was doomed from the start. I'm still trying to find the time to update this blog. I mean, my last post was in September of 2005. What's difficult is I don't run in these circles very often, so I would have to start involving myself with Disney more often.

4. Start 3 new websites.

I got two launched, the third I dropped because there was little sense in launching it. I won't tell you what it was going to be because I wouldn't want to disappoint you. The only problem with this was that these sites were not updated regularly. To my credit, nowhere in this resolution did I say I would update them at all.

5. Begin podcasting.

Do you see any podcasts anywhere on this site? Or any of my other sites? No. I don't know, the idea of podcasting has rather waned on me a bit. Due primarily to the fact that podcasting as evolved into video podcasting. While that would be easier for me to implement, I don't know what it is I would share.

I think I did well with my resolutions. But what am I going to do this year? Nothing . . . well, not nothing, but I don't think I'm going to make formal resolutions this year; if I come across something that I want to change, than I will resolve to change it. Until then, I'm just going to live my life.


Monday, January 1, 2007

New Years Eve Day

Yesterday started out fantastic as we made our weekly trip to Best Buy where they had a selection of TV on DVD boxed sets on sale. I picked up the complete series (3 seasons) of Chris Carter's Millennium, starring Lance Henrickson. I also bought the first season of Bones and the second season of Dead Like Me. Each of the sets cost a mere $19.99; a great price and one I couldn't pass up. However, I did see they were selling every season of the X-Files for $19.99 each, which to someone who paid more than twice and in some cases four times that price, made me a little sick.

Once we arrived back home from our shopping excursion, we had a little time to waste before going to my grandparent's house for a New Years Eve celebration. Mom made some French Toast from the bread I made, and we sat and watched Big Day, a show ABC seems to racing to end. From there, we went our separate ways and did our own thing.

Two o'clock came and we made our way to my grandparent's house. We talked about the trouble my Grandfather was having with this contraption they bought at Linen's and Things that allows you to burn you audio tapes and vinyl to CD. When we first heard about it on the day after Thanksgiving, we thought it would be an awesome way to preserve old media. As it turns out, after a solid week of decent results, the whole thing crapped out on them. Now there is some debate on whether they should just return it, or exchange it for another one.

Once we exhausted the subject of the L-n-T contraption, the subject changed to Pokémon and other games my Grandfather was playing. I then showed him the game I was currently playing, Elite Beat Agents. He thought it was a cool concept, and after showing him a quick demo of it, my Aunt and Samantha arrived. Almost immediately, the group divided and my Grandfather, Samantha and I went into another room to play video games, as the ladies sat at the table and did their thing.

We all congregated back to the dining room for food and conversation, then played Disney Trivial Pursuit. My mom and I are huge Disney fans and we know a lot about the parks, but when it comes to Disney movies, while we enjoy watching them, we aren't experts so playing these games is always difficult for us. Personally, I will watch a movie a dozen or so times and still not remember all the details that are required to play such a game. However, once I'm reminded, I can recall the section of the movie with immense clarity. This ability I have is useless in a game that requires you to know the movie to begin with.

After my Aunt, Grandmother and I wiped the floor with our opponents in a very close game, we moved on to a game I generally despise, Outburst! I am a highly competitive person and I hate the way I feel when I compete, so I make every effort to not compete in anything. Outburst! is one of those games that can split families apart, except this time it was better because I had already won in DTP so the feeling of competition subsided.

Once we finished the games and dessert, we all left and headed home. When Mom and I arrived home, we picked out Thank You for Smoking to watch. It is a hilarious movie about a spin-doctor for big tobacco. It's one of those movies, no matter how you feel about the subject of big tobacco, you find yourself rooting for the "bad guy". I highly recommend you see it if you have the chance.

The rest of my evening had me working on the blog for A God in Training and then I felt too sick from exhaustion and the massive amount of food I consumed to continue. So, I lied in bed and watched a little TV until I fell asleep.