January 19, 2005
The Cubes
This is so pathetic, it’s frightening.
Talk about sending torture gifts to friends who work in cube farms…
January 16, 2005
Sin City
I never got beyond the first few issues of Frank Miller’s Sin City, but I always thought it was an outstanding comic. I’ve long been an admirer of Miller’s work, notably on Daredevil and Batman. I was very pleased to see that Robert Rodriguez is helming the film version, and it appears Miller is deeply involved with the project. The trailer is great, and what a cast!
January 14, 2005
Debate 2004 a la Costco
So apparently Costco has little debate articles in its monthly magazines, where “experts” offer a pro and con on the subject in question, and members are able to vote. The latest issue of Costco Connection has the results of all of last year’s debates, so I thought I would share. I’m only including the members’ votes.
January
Should the national Do Not Call Registry be implemented?
YES: 92%
NO: 8%
February
Should the U.S. release the detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay?
YES: 39%
NO: 61%
March
Has NAFTA been a good thing?
YES: 23%
NO: 77%
April
Is the Mars Initiative worthwhile?
YES: 60%
NO: 40%
May
Should baseball have the designated hitter?
YES: 18%
NO: 82%
June
Are low-carb diets a healthy long-term lifestyle choice?
YES: 76%
NO: 24%
July
Should foreign-born U.S. citizens be allowed to run for president?
YES: 23%
NO: 77%
August
Can anything be done to reduce gasoline prices?
YES: 85%
NO: 15%
September
Should cable and satellite subscribers be able to choose which channels they want?
YES: 95%
NO: 5%
October
Should obesity be treated as a medical illness?
YES: 48%
NO: 52%
November
Should you give cash to the homeless?
YES: 43%
NO: 57%
December
Should we sell naming rights to public places?
YES: 10%
NO: 90%
December 03, 2004
A good birthday
Number thirty-four today. It was a good day.
My good friend FranX, who had the day off, decided to spend it with me. We hung out at the house, caught up on one another’s lives, and watched a little Blue Collar Comedy Tour. I was treated to lunch at Chipotle, where I had my favorite, a chicken Burrito Bol. After a couple of errands, we headed back to the house, wherein FranX became fascinated by the Collection software and the IntelliScanner. Within forty minutes, every movie in the house, DVD and VHS, was cataloged, a back-burner project brought to the fore. FranX promptly checked out The Matrix Revolutions and Minority Report, which will be easy to track in Collection’s Lending Manager.
Missus Phisch and the little phisch took me to Abuelo’s for dinner. Yes, Tex-Mex for the entire day! W00t!! Afterwards, a Target run was made, where I scored the Daredevil Director’s Cut for a mere thirteen bucks. (On sale through tomorrow.)
Yessiree, bob, a good birthday indeed.
December 01, 2004
Choose wisely
So I get this card in the mail from Barnes & Noble. It contains a sticker that gives me an additional 15 percent off any item in the store. This is on top of any other discounts already available on the item, and in addition to the usual member’s discount. So I figured I would go browse and find something that was on sale for 20-30 percent off, then take advantage with my new coupon and end up getting the item for 45-55 percent off.
In the end, I got The Complete Peanuts 1950-1954 Boxed Set for about $6 cheaper than I would have gotten it on Amazon. Sure, there’s the free shipping option and no sales tax advantage by purchasing from Amazon, but getting the boxed set, normally $49.95, for 45 percent off and being able to come home and enjoy it immediately, was worth it. Not to mention it all working out as an early birthday present from me to me.
So, fellow B&N members, choose wisely with regard to your 15 percent-off purchase, and be sure to price compare with what’s available online.
October 20, 2004
Sox win
I humbly, and gladly, eat crow. Simply incredible.
If you haven’t been watching the American League Championship Series, you have missed not only baseball history, but sports history. No major league baseball team has ever come back from being down 3-0 to win a series. Tonight, the Boston Red Sox become the first team to do so, and head to the World Series. They join the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Islanders in the NHL as the only major sports teams to accomplish this feat.
Should the Astros fall to the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series: Michael, Eric, and members of the Leitao clan, I’ll expect a Red Sox cap in the mail. ;-)
October 05, 2004
The real acoustic version of The Saddest Song?
Can anyone tell me if it is possible to find a version of The Ataris’ The Saddest Song that features just the two acoustic guitars, as played in the video? The acoustic version I found on the iTunes Music Store has a piano and a string section playing along, too. I like the starkness of just the two guitars from the video version; it really makes the song, well, sadder, if that is possible.
And if this song/video isn’t a dead-on testament to how devastating the selfishness of divorce is to kids, I’m not sure if there is one.
August 27, 2004
Boxer’s fracture
This Sunday will mark the passing of the third week since I injured my right hand. I play softball on my church’s co-ed team. I usually play third base, and was doing so on the 8th. During the first game of a double-header, we had a runner coming to third after a hit in to center field. The throw came in from one of our outfielders, and while trying to catch the ball and bring it down to make the tag, I caught too much of the ball with my unprotected hand rather than with the glove.
When the inning was over, I was done, for that game and the next. My hand spent the next couple of hours in ice. It started to bruise later that night, and by Monday night, my entire palm was bruised. My hand, mainly around the knuckle of my little finger and that entire side, was swollen. I could still move my little finger without much pain, and we all figured I had just severely bruised it.
The next weekend I was in Connecticut for a friend’s wedding. The hand was still bothering me, but the swelling was slowly receding, and the bruising wasn’t as noticeable. Then this past weekend came around, and things weren’t really getting much better. The swelling was majorly down from the initial injury, but some was still present, and I did have a wider range of motion with the little and ring fingers than I had the week before. What prompted me to finally call an orthopedist this past Wednesday was the fact that when I straightened out my fingers, the little finger didn’t quite line up with the rest.
It turns out I did fracture my hand, specifically the joint where my knuckle connects to my little finger. The doc said it’s called a boxer’s fracture, and is common in, of course, boxers, and others who practice martial arts. When one punches something, they tend to lead with the knuckle of the little finger, and if one punches something too hard, like say, a wall or car door, one will more than likely cause such an injury. I just happened to have a hard, but well-thrown, ball cause mine.
The fracture is already healing. The doctor said the swelling those first few days may have actually helped, as it limited my movement of that finger and knuckle. If I had come to see him that first week, I would have gotten a cast. If had shown up the week after, he likely would have put my hand in a removable splint. As it is now, doing either wouldn’t really aid in the healing process, so we left it as is. He was impressed that I was able to shake his hand when he first came in to the examination room, and commented that I didn’t seem to have much of a problem with my grip. He did say I will have to avoid certain activities for the next four to six weeks, including softball (the fall season starts next week), but otherwise things are proceeding fine.
Both my wife and my mom called this one correctly, thinking I may have broken one of the smaller bones in my hand. So the lesson here, fellas, is listen to Dr. Mom and/or Dr. Wife. They seem to have a sense for these things…
August 26, 2004
Trade tricks
Matthew Baldwin, Tricks of the Trade:
Nurse
Patients will occasionally pretend to be unconscious. A surefire way to find them out is to pick up their hand, hold it above their face, and let go. If they smack themselves, they’re most likely unconscious; if not, they’re faking.
I also liked Newspaper Headline Writer, but the Nurse trick was the one that had me laughing out loud.
August 24, 2004
80s throwbacks
If you, like I, had your formative years during the 1980s, then 80s Tees can fulfill your desire to be a Material Girl. Or guy.
My personal favorite is actually one from the last year of the 80s, 1990. Size XXL, if anyone is feeling generous…
August 17, 2004
What a night for the Rangers
The Texas Rangers baseball club, that is.
Courtesy of FranX, the Official Retrophisch™ Statistician, here’s the low-down on the massive 16-4 victory tonight over the Cleveland Indians:
- Nathan “Buck” Showalter records his 700th victory as a manager.
- Mark Teixeira is the second Ranger to hit for the cycle. The first was Oddibe McDowell in 1985, also against the Indians. (The cycle, for those who may not know, consists of getting at least one each in a single game: a single, a double, a triple, and a home run.)
- Teixeira’s triple was his first of the season.
- Teixeira had the first four-hit game of his career.
- Gary Matthews, Jr. hit his 10th homer of the year. That makes 10 Rangers players with at least 10 homeruns — matching the major league record last set by Cincinnati and Baltimore in 2000.
- Teixeira saw a career-high of seven RBIs.
- Kevin Mench was a triple shy of the cycle.
August 04, 2004
July 30, 2004
Tarping
I sense some future Darwin Award candidate in this tarping bunch. It’s a 3.6 MB download, so dial-uppers beware. It’s worth laughing at the idiocy, however.
Thanks, Lee!
From whence cometh, “dude”
Of interest to FranX, Phil Dokas provides linkage to the creation and evolution of dude.
July 20, 2004
Reflective glass public toilet
Yes, Virginia, there really is a public toilet that feels like everyone can see you, but not really.
July 12, 2004
I am Vader
Mind the Flash and music. Note that they shouldn’t show you up front what some of the villain choices are, as one can read between the lines and skew the quiz to get a specific result. Of course, it’s all in good fun. What, you don’t think so? I find your lack of faith disturbing…
Thanks, Raena!
May 28, 2004
Attorney turned wrestler
Friend of the Phisch™ Thomas Toland recounts for D Magazine his experience on the reality show Faking It. Tom used to work with my wife, and we anxiously await his show, airing on June 6 on TLC. I especially liked his insights on how the directors and producers work on “reality” television.
May 25, 2004
May 19, 2004
Brutally Honest Personals
I really wish I were making this up. Okay, no, I really don’t, because the truth is stranger than fiction.
May 17, 2004
Friends vs Frasier
Like David, I enjoyed the Friends series finale, and thought they did a great job with it. However, after viewing the Frasier series finale, I believe that as far as series-enders go, the honors fall firmly in Frasier’s court.
With so much going on in our lives since last August, I had forgotten how clever and witty Frasier was. There is a reason this show has collected more Emmys than any other comedy. Well, lots of reasons, actually, but I feel that the writing for Frasier has always been better than that of Friends.
About three years ago, my wife and I almost gave up on Friends. The writing wasn’t as good as it had been in the past, Monica and Ross had both become about a million times more annoying than in, say, the first three years of the show, and we found ourselves oftentimes rolling our eyes over situations and circumstances the characters found themselves in. I know, I know, it’s just a television show, but it is one that we had watched together since its pilot. We had formed an emotional attachment with the show, and wanted to see it do well. It was our feeling that it wasn’t doing well. The final two years turned the show around, and it finished on a high note.
In the end, my hat is off to the casts and crews of both shows for great runs. I look forward to future visits to Central Perk and a little coffee shop in Seattle, courtesy of syndication.
Best third place team in the league
I’ve been playing in a co-ed church softball league since the fall. The spring season just concluded, and our team finished with the best record of the six teams in the league, at 9-1. Unfortunately, we lost to the 4th seed in the first round of the playoffs, and ended up in third place.
I had a pretty good season at third base. Made some good plays, but let more than I would like get by me. On offense, I finished with a .571 average, 16 of 28, with eight RBIs and three walks. I would definitely like to see my game improve in all areas, and will get the chance to do so, since I have signed up for the summer league.
May 05, 2004
Forgotten finale
Friends will be ending tomorrow night, and the nation will be watching. The series is two years shy of being around as long as my wife and I have been married, and we have been fans since the pilot.
There is another show that is wrapping up this year, and it is doing so with zero fanfare. No, I’m not talking about NBC’s other hit, Frasier. I’m referring to the defunct Drew Carey Show.
My wife never cared for the show, but I enjoyed it for several years. That was, until I couldn’t find it any more. My viewership of the show was lost, like many, I’m sure, due to ABC bouncing it around to every time slot available during the work week. You may also notice that ABC currently isn’t running the show; the final season will be broadcast in a two-episodes-a-week format this summer.
(via the Iconfactory)
March 20, 2004
Cowboy up
There’s a line in the thinking-man’s action flick, Tears of the Sun, where Bruce Willis’s character tells Sammi Rotibi’s Arthur Azuka to “…cowboy the f* up…”
I’ve wondered what that meant. As someone who’s studied the American special ops community since middle school, I thought I had something of a grasp on most of the lingo used, but this one was new to me. A Google search revealed that the term “cowboy up” comes from the rodeo circuit (and recently co-opted by the Boston Red Sox, who will use anything in their repeated pathetic attempts to beat the Yankees).
February 18, 2004
Yankee or Dixie?
Take the quiz, comment your scores. I scored firmly in Dixie territory at 70 percent; the wife scored at 66 percent. Big surprise…