Detroit, Rock City...

I had to take a day trip to Detroit yesterday for work. Let me tell you, Detroit is an interesting city because despite the Tigers moving to a new stadium, the old Tiger Stadium downtown is still there! And, despite the sorry Lions moving to a new stadium, the Silverdome is still there! Now, this is not like Houston, where the Astrodome is still used or like Dallas, where Reunion Arena is still open for business. Nope, quite the contrary. Just big empty wastes of space.

I really didn't get to spend a lot of time in the city, but that really struck me as weird. Oh well, maybe they forgot demolition in the cost analysis. Maybe they expected someone to buy a property, without it's major tenant. That would be a wise business decision!

7 Reasons Spiderman 3 is G_y...

Ok, so I was talking to a co-worker and in his opinion, Spiderman 3 is a bad movie. The CGI is very good and it's visually appealing, but the story is bad and premise is just bad... I can't take credit for all of this, but I did want to post it all the same... So without further adoo, and in deference to 101 Great Posting Ideas That Will Make Your Blog Sizzle, I give you "7 Reasons Spiderman 3 is G_y"

1. The whole Sandman character is totally unnecessary... why is he even in the movie? Not only was he unnecessary, but the whole Uncle Ben's death storyline had to be completely re-told and changed to introduce the Sandman.
2. Mary Jane sings... TWICE... why was this necessary? Pretty much all you need to know right there...
3. Peter Parker dances... G.A.Y. 'nuff said... again...
   
4. Venom is played by Topher Grace! Yes, Eric Forman from "That 70's Show"... As if Tobey Maguire wasn't already hard enough to accept as Spidey, but at least we could understand.
   
5. Everybody cries... Did Tobey Maguire cry in every other scene? It seemed so to my daughter's friend... teenagers were put off by it.
   
6. So why does Harry's butler wait until after the New Goblin and Spiderman have tried to eliminate each other to tell him that his father's wounds seemed to be self-inflicted? Of course, now they are best buds, right?
   
7. Amnesia... AM-f'n-NESIA. I mean who uses this "classic" contrivance in a movie anymore? It's so... so... 70's??? Lame...

So there you have it... I think there are more, but this is what we got to before we were interrupted. If you can think of more, feel free to pile on... ;-)

Regrets...

What if you had the opportunity to "fix" the greatest regret in your life? Would you do it? At what cost would you do it? How far would you go to fix that regret?

No matter if the regret was letting a love go or an act you committed or anything else...

What if there was a way to make it right? However, if making it right would turn your world upside down, would you still do it? What would you be willing to give up? Everything? Nothing? Just a little bit?

How many people actually get to right there greatest regret? Does it even happen? Is it 1 in a million? 1 in a billion? Never?

Will the grass be greener? Or is it that nothing was going to change, whether it was righted or not... Or will too much have changed in the time for it to still be meaningful?

Valid questions or pondering the imponderables?

Most Unwanted Inventions?

Parade Magazine reports the most unwanted inventions. I tend to agree with most of these. But then, where would the world be without innovation?

1) High Heels
“They hurt my feet, legs and back, and they make me dread dressy occasions,” writes Cindy Lee of Metairie, La.

2) Jet Skis
“They are inventions that allow one person to enjoy a formerly quiet lake or beach while ruining the scene for swimmers, picnickers and sailors, not to mention wildlife,” says N.W. of Ann Arbor, Mich.

3) Leaf-Blowers
“Yet again, my calm was rudely interrupted by the whining, obnoxious leaf-blower across the street,” writes Annette Alabaster of Richmond, Va. “I wonder how many decibels those things put out.” Adds Meg Byrd of Clover, javascript:void(0)
PublishS.C.: “I hate, hate, hate leaf-blowers! Get a rake!”

4) Automated Telephone Assistance
“My biggest fear in life is that the person who invented this will invent something else,” writes Linda Palter of Muskegon, Mich. And Walter Huff of Rialto, Calif., says: “When you finally locate a choice that approximates what you need, you are told that ‘all representatives are busy, but your call is important to us, so please hold.’ Twenty minutes later, you’re still waiting with that important call!”

5) Television
“For the greatest promise betrayed,” explains Bob Altman of Mount Pleasant, S.C. “TV has desensitized the world to violence; reduced political discourse to sound bites; fostered short attention spans, sedentary lifestyles and crass materialism; and demeaned women and fathers.”

6) Video Games
“As a schoolteacher, I see how video games have shifted children from interaction to isolation with their controllers,” writes Lynn Hatch of Park City, Utah.

7) Bass Amplifiers
“These rolling boom boxes—cars with high-power bass amplifiers—rattle the pans hanging in my kitchen,” writes T.P. Wilson of Houston, Tex. “I can’t escape the pounding.”

8) Neckties
“When I get to Hades, I’m gonna find the guy who invented the necktie and strangle him with one of his own creations,” writes Nick Dunbar of Chicago.

9) Car Alarms
“What use are they, except to wake the neighbors?” writes Sean Huxter of Norwood, Mass. And Patti Maillett of Towson, Md., notes: “They don’t even serve their intended purpose. No one takes them seriously. Have you ever heard a car alarm sounding and thought, ‘Wow! Someone is trying to steal that car!’?”

10) Cell Phones
“On the plus side, they’ve made us instantly available anyplace, anytime,” notes Nina Cooper of Las Vegas. “On the minus side, they’ve made us instantly available anyplace, anytime.” Adds Bill James of Austin, Tex.: “They ruin our personal time. Both your boss and your client want you to be reachable. A quiet dinner with the family? A movie? Fuhgettaboutit!” Another reader, Jenn Frommer of Albany, N.Y., complains: “I am sick of hearing people’s loud, stupid conversations everywhere I go!”

There you have it, readers. Cell phones have become like impossible girlfriends and boyfriends: You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them!


Ask Marilyn | PARADE Magazine

WTF, people?

I tell you that I have a new template for my blog and you can't even be bothered to comment on it? I tell you that I have an "About" section and still, NOTHING. I mean, come on, I think the new template is good change, one that makes the site look cleaner and load faster, and the "About" section certainly says a lot... but that could just be me admiring my handiwork...

Seriously, I know you all have things going on in your life... Ilker has a new domain; Joe has a new casual gaming site; J always has something going on (I don't know what I would do with TODDLERS at this time in my life!); Heather, well hell, she's a freaking NEWS ANCHOR!; and Becky wearing her short shorts. And of course, John Chow is John Chow...

Throw me a frickin' bone here, folks...

Well?

Here I sit...

I'm at work monitoring the time change. Big woop! As I mentioned previously, this is much ado about nothing. What can I say... Servers are changing time on the east coast, but they don't all do it at exactly 2:00 a.m. Weird...

Soccer rant...

I like to win... but I don't mind losing when the match is well played. Of course, I am speaking about my daughter's soccer team - living vicariously... I DO mind losing to a team that is arrogant and who we outplayed throughout the match. We have consistently outplayed this team and have beaten them indoors and outdoors; I can't remember losing to them. They were never gracious losers - arrogance. One of the players should have been carded for a flagrant foul.

We win some; we lose some, so we DO know how to lose. Just galls me to lose like that.

There was another incident with a parent of this team I won't go into... Some people.

Much ado about nothing? A rant by any other name...

I work in IT for my company. I am, by title, a Sr. Network Engineer - but I guess, you would have to describe my job as a Microsoft Windows Server administrator... well, I do a lot more than administer (administrate?) the servers.

Anyway, this coming weekend is the beginning of daylight savings time, otherwise known as DST. In the government's infinite wisdom, it was deemed necessary to extend DST starting this year. Thus, DST starts three weeks early and ends a week later than it has in the past. Now keep in mind we have had DST for years now, but many "Chicken Littles" in the industry are crying "Y2K!", which, if I recall correctly, was a big bunch of nothing...

Last weekend, my wife's work completely closed down their e-mail infrastructure to apply the DST patch. Their IT director actually used the term "Y2K" to describe the impact of this event. I laughed... loudly. Mind you there were special considerations and a certain order for patching Exchange, but a whole weekend? Give me a break. It was their close weekend and it really put a bind on the groups that are responsible for closing the books. At my wife's suggestion, they had to implement a "phone bank" in order to communicate with each successive group to do their tasks to close. Poor planning and execution, if you ask me.

This weekend, we are required to come in to work at 1:00 a.m. to make sure that there are no issues from the time change... READ THAT AGAIN! Yes, we are required to come in and verify that each server has changed time. Here's the deal people:

WE HAVE HAD DST FOR AS LONG AS WE HAVE HAD COMPUTERS.

We have had TIME CHANGES before; in fact, TWICE every year. The only difference is that it starts earlier and it ends later... that is ALL. Oh, sure, there COULD be problems... like an appointment is off by an hour, or something similar, but how many of you know of someone who was late to church, or even late to work on the following Monday, because they didn't change their clocks. It happens...

So here's the deal: Treating this event, that happens twice a year, every year, like it is a big deal is ASININE. Should you be prepared? Yes, absolutely, no question. But requiring people to be at work for the time change or requiring that your email system be down A WHOLE FREAKING weekend is really, really dumb. And equating the event to Y2K is down-right idiotic, to say the least.

/RANT OFF