General
A picture is worth 7 wins
Sunday, May 16th, 2010 | General, Philly, sports | No Comments
I have a list of things I want to blog about, which will happen regularly throughout these next few weeks (I hope Sean’s RSS feeder heard that!). What makes it difficult to blog is when Philly sports teams do well in the playoffs.
With that in mind, here is an excellent screenshot of ESPN’s website after the latest playoff success:
Screenshot of ESPN.com main page
Living with Conflict
Sunday, November 8th, 2009 | Deep Thoughts, General | No Comments
The Provost of Drexel University recently sent out a lengthy email that detailed his difficult situation as a native New Yorker living in Philly and cheering for the Phillies during the 2009 World Series. He used his situation as an impressive segue for introducing a new philosophy for Drexel’s different departments, which are now offering programs and courses aimed at general audiences. Or something like that. I was actually kinda mad to receive an email during the World Series that was boasting about the glory of growing up as a fan of the Yankees and skipped over those parts.
I’ll spare you his thoughts on the Phillies, Yankees, and Drexel in the interest of sharing an eloquent, interesting excerpt. It’s OK to think deeply on a Sunday…
“The great American poet Robert Frost writes, ‘Nothing in life runs unmixed.’ The challenge of living comes from its complexity, its multiple perspectives and possibilities for interpretation, its uncertainties. Solving an equation correctly is satisfying; it provides closure. A really good movie or novel or poem — or a complex scientific or engineering problem — prompts more questions than it answers, poses challenges that are not resolved easily or perhaps at all. Friendships and relationships do not run unmixed. Major life decisions do not run unmixed. The great art of living well involves learning to live with uncertainty, becoming comfortable with conflict, even becoming able to balance two competing theories or perspectives at once — or affiliations to two sports teams locked in fierce competition. That’s why it’s an art and not an exact science.”
– Mark Greenberg, Drexel University
Found: The Nearest (?) Payphone
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 | General, Society | No Comments
I am pleased/shocked/amazed that I recently found a payphone (see picture below)! It is near Steve’s Prince of Steaks on St Vincent St. I can not vouch for the functionality of the payphone, but I am now prepared for my next encounter with Very Confused Looking Man.
The last remaining payphone?
The Nearest Pay Phone?
Monday, April 13th, 2009 | General, Society | No Comments
I know I should be posting my He Said / She Said about why it is better to have a summer birthday, but I had an encounter this morning that I wanted to share.
I dropped my wife off at work this morning and then headed to the neighborhood Wawa for a coffee during the busy morning rush hour. I was about three people deep in the cashier line when a very confused-looking man walked in. He removed his old fashioned sunglasses from a head covered with a full-blown mullet, and revealed an expression suggesting that whatever was on his mind was the most important thing in the world. It wasn’t so much a panicked look as it was a “caught up in his own situation” look.
The cashier was in the process of accepting payment from a customer when Very Confused Looking Man glanced at a paper in his hand, looked in her direction, and blurted out, “Can you tell me where the nearest payphone is?” My initial reaction was, “Huh? Did he just interrupt her to ask for a payphone?” I first obtained a cell phone for work purposes in 1998 and, without finding any definitive data online, recall them exploding in popularity about 2-3 years after that. I also recall reading and hearing news stories at that time that more and more companies were removing pay phones from public facilities since they were no longer producing enough income to justify the hassle of maintaining them.
The cashier, who appeared just old enough to legally work, had a blank look on her face as she handed change to the customer in line. Her quiet reply to Very Confused Looking Man was, “Honestly, I have no idea where that would be.” Since the cashier is young enough to have never even manually rolled up a car window, she could have just as easily said, “Honestly, I have no idea what a payphone is.” Very Confused Looking Man looked very disappointed and resumed a hurried pace through the store.
I was not the only person in disbelief of Very Confused Looking Man’s question. The customer who had just received his change was an elderly man, old enough to still have a ‘new’ rotary phone, but even he looked at the cashier and asked, “Did he just ask for a payphone?” The elderly man asked this in a hushed tone, careful to preserve Very Confused Looking Man’s dignity after asking such a ridiculous question. The cashier nodded and then let out a nervous laugh, which made me smile. We were all temporarily lost in our own thoughts when Very Confused Looking Man asked the question, but now realized that we had shared this moment of anachronistic realization together. Today, in this age of cell phones, someone asked for the location of the nearest payphone and none of us could provide an answer. 10 years ago, my answer would have been, “Gee, did you look right outside Wawa?” but obviously not anymore.
It wasn’t until I got home that I properly processed the details of the situation and realized the truth. Think about it: a preoccupied outsider, the old fashioned sunglasses, the full-blown mullet, the bizarre request for a payphone. This man was clearly a time traveler from the past! And we had all laughed at him, instead of recognizing the awesomeness of the experience!
I leave you with two very important questions:
- Why is Very Confused Looking Man here in the future?
- Do you know where you can find a pay phone?
He Said / She Said – Intro
Monday, April 13th, 2009 | General, He Said / She Said | No Comments
As you may have noticed, the preceding entry was posted by my wife, Ali. The idea behind that entry was that we were looking for a way to promote a little creative writing between us, and the idea we came up with was to pick a topic and then take a “He Said / She Said” type of approach to the topic. The only rules, or guidelines, are that we cannot read the other person’s post before we upload our own, and that we limit our posts to 250 words or less. We are experimenting with the idea and format, so we wanted a simple topic just to kick things off. Since her birthday is in November and mine is in July, we decided our first topic would be “Why it is better to have a (Fall/Summer) Birthday.” Ali posted her entry on Friday, and I will add mine today. I promise I have not read Ali’s entry yet, and have only copied the URL for linking purposes.
Feel free to share your ideas for a topic you’d like to see us debate in this space. We plan on getting a little more philosophical and provocative than “Best time to have a Birthday.” We are also debating whether or not to adapt Twitter’s 140 character limit by limiting ourselves to 140 words instead of 240. If so, would this format be called Twlogging? Twentries?
LOST Thoughts, “Dead is Dead”
Thursday, April 9th, 2009 | General, LOST, TV Channel Challenge | 3 Comments
I finished last night’s LOST episode, “Dead is Dead” (04/09/09). I won’t post a recap/summary (unless necessary for a point I am trying to make) or any theories because there are enough blogs and websites dedicated to those topics, but here are some of my questions and observations from last night’s episode:
1. First of all, I was plagued throughout season 4 in noticing that Penny (played by Sonya Walger) bears a striking resemblance to some other celebrity, but could not figure out who. It was not until early in season 5 that I put my finger on it: John Travolta. I don’t know if it is the eyes, cheekbones, similar femine demeanor, or what, but every time Penny is on screen, I can only image her exclaiming “Sandy! in a British accent. I brought this observation up to some friends recently and even produced pictures of each actor, but I was dismissed as crazy.
Until today. My wife received this email from a co-worker who was involved in that conversation: “Ok, I can kind of see the Penny – John Travolta thing.” It is a small statement of pseudo-agreement, but a huge victory for my celebrity matching self-esteem.
2. Ben is certainly becoming more and more intriguing to me as we slowly discover his soft, compassionate side — particularly his mercy towards mothers with children. In last night’s episode, present-day Ben says to Jin, “Find Desmond Hulme and tell him I am sorry…he’ll know why.” This statement is then followed by a flashback of Ben walking on a dock to kill Penny, and I was disgusted by his savage disgustingness. Then, he is redeemed as we see that he reacts to Widmore’s daughter (and grandson) the same way he reacted to his ‘own’ daughter 20 years earlier — and that earlier move had terrible implications on Ben and Charles’ relationship. I wonder if this consistency and mercy from Ben will resolve some of the animosity between the two (assuming his phone call with Charles just moments earlier did not do irreparable damage already).
Either way, I find myself conflicted: is Ben a decent human being worthy of sympathy and compassion, or is he a manipulative monster who should be loathed and condemned? Or both? Just another example of brilliant writing from LOST’s crew.
3. I am very interested in seeing how Ben’s orders/threat from Alex the Smoke Monster (A the SM) to loyally follow Locke will unfold. He seemed genuinely shocked and in awe at the end of the episode, when Locke reappeared with the vine. His orders/threat from A the SM seem to have been set up by a statement from Locke earlier in the episode. I don’t remember the exact quote, but Locke, responding to a barrage of questions from Ben about where they were going, says something to the effect of, “It’s not easy to blindly follow someone on the basis of a leap of faith without knowing answers, is it?” Thanks to A the SM, it seems that blindly following someone (Locke) on the basis of a leap of faith is exactly what Ben must do from this point forward.
Questions from “LaFleur” that have been answered:
1. Horace and Amy’s son is Ethan. Ethan appears as a baby in one of the subsequent episodes, and as an adolescent in “Dead is Dead.” This raises a new question: Is Ethan more significant to the overall story of the island than we currently know, or, as my wife suggests, is he merely included in episodes to serve a reference for the time period of events so that viewers don’t get too confused.
Those are just a few thoughts / observations I have after watching last night’s episode, “Dead is Dead.” Please feel free to comment, respond, share your own thoughts or questions, or otherwise let me know you enjoy reading mine!
LOST Thoughts, “LaFleur”
Thursday, March 5th, 2009 | General, LOST, TV Channel Challenge | 1 Comment
I watched last night’s LOST episode, “LaFleur” (03/04/09). I won’t post a recap/summary or any theories because there are enough blogs and websites dedicated to those topics, but here are some of my questions from last night’s episode:
1. Why won’t the “sonic fence” keep Richard and his people out of the compound. He mentions to Horace that the fence “may keep somethings out, but not him and not his people.” Do the Hostiles know the code to deactivate its disintegration powers, or is there something special about them?
2. What happens on the island between the 1970′s (which is the current time for Sawyer’s Five and the Oceanic Six) and the present day that results in the death of women giving birth? Is it because the Losties are in the 1970′s and interfering with the natural progression of events, or is there some other event that happens?
3. Who is Amy and Horace’s son? Will he grow up to be someone we already know from watching the first four-and-a-half seasons , or is it an insignificant character shown only to signify that Amy gave birth without dying?
That’s all I’ve got for now. More questions (and hopefully answers) may pop up as I have discussions with my wife and friends, and listen to Preston & Steve’s LOST discussion!
25 Things: The Facebook Meme
Saturday, February 14th, 2009 | General, Lists | No Comments
A copy of my “25 Things” meme that’s been making the rounds through Facebook.
- Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.
- (To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)
1. My birthday is July 12. I have worked a 16-hour day on my birthday every year for the past 13 years.
2. I hate when my soup and hot chocolate/tea is burning hot. I heat them up to “warm enough” before consuming.
3. A character in many of my stories is an accomplished writer. He has written the following books: “H2Whoa: 101 Fun Things to do with Water,” “Swallowcaust: Lack of Food in Concentration Camps,” “Fat Fatties and the Fat Fatties Who Love Them,” and “Nun of Your Business: Discrimination Among Entrepreneurial Clergy.”
4. I hope to one day write the aforementioned books.
5. I briefly considered joining the US Air Force in 2000. Instead, I took a placement test for the US Census Bureau even though I had no intentions of working for them, and this single event launched me on a path that led to me having an M.Ed., wife, and job as Director of a Summer Camp. Seriously.
6. When we were younger, the only time my brother and I were guaranteed to get along was when we were playing video games. Now, 22+ years later, we still play video games together thanks to XBox and the internet.
7. I love driving to work every day so I can listen to Preston and Steve. When they go to commercial, I turn on the buffoons on 610 WIP and, when they annoy me too much, I turn to NPR.
8. I still have every letter and Western Union I ever received during my 19 summers at Golden Slipper Camp.
9. I love organizing information. Give me Excel and some information and I am set for the evening.
10. I love social media and the internet. I write in two blogs, plus I manage 11 different websites!
11. I think Scrubs is the greatest show in the history of television. The writing is sharp, funny, and emotionally investing.
12. I have participated in several fantasy football leagues, but the SFFL (Slipper Fantasy Football League) is my favorite. I have been in this league with virtually the same people since 1996. I won one championship and lost two in my first five years in the league. In the eight years since, I have not even qualified for the playoffs.
13. My Arcadia roommate and I made a ton of short films that played constantly on the campus’ closed circuit TV. From time to time, a stranger on campus would talk to me and make reference to a video I was in, or act like I was one of the characters. I even had a stalker who asked me to be her date to the Spring Cotillion based on these videos. I also had another roommate tell me that she hated our videos when she was sober, but there was nothing better to watch when drunk.
14. Some of the best videos we created are not available. Either the footage has been lost or the stories exist only in our heads or on paper. One day, Clam Chowder and Harry Doobs…
15. My brother and I always wanted a little sister. I also wanted a twin brother.
16. I described my earliest memory to my mother once. She looked at me like I was crazy. She later explained that I had described something that happened when I was 8 months old. I am not making this up.
17. I often have realistic dreams of minor events that later come true. I have not yet had a dream where I see the outcome of the Super Bowl or any other future event from which I could make a profit.
18. I believe I have been reincarnated. I can identify at least two of my former lives from memories and knowledge of events that I should not otherwise have. The first time I was in Washington, D.C., I recognized a statue of a lesser-known individual from the mid-1770s. My friend, Allison, crossed the street and was stunned when the nameplate on the statue confirmed the individual’s identity.
19. I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease when I was 12 and did not walk for a while because of the pain. I received physical therapy to help me relearn the natural motion of walking. For a while afterwards, walking required conscious effort and I still walk funny whenever I think about the action of walking itself.
20. I have always been a pitcher in baseball, but in 1993 I started pitching submarine-style. This is because I had severe tendonitis in my throwing elbow that kept me awake every night. I did not want to give up my role as a pitcher, so I did not tell my coach. One day, the pain was so severe while I was warming up that I started throwing submarine-style because it did not hurt. I was deadly accurate with this delivery, and I had a lot of movement on the pitches. The other team made fun of my pitching motion, but I was dominant and shut them down. I have pitched submarine-style since that day, even though my elbow feels 100% fine.
21. I love classic rock. I also love cheesy pop songs, most of which are one-hit wonders. Thank you, Led Zeppelin, The Police, Billy Joel, Baha Men, A-Teens, Hanson, and LFO.
22. LFO is the greatest boy band ever. No contest.
23. I am addicted to the Internet.
24. I am an exceptional speller, and can recall almost any word I have ever seen or read. If I could go back in time and talk to myself at thirteen, I would encourage me to enter a spelling bee so I could destroy the competition. I would also tell me to save a lot of money and bet on the Phillies winning the 2008 World Series.
25. I used to have a bad habit where I calculated the syllables of every word I said by grinding my jaw. It was probably borderline OCD because it started disrupting my sanity and sleep. It took a lot of effort to break this habit.
Reaction to the 2009 Presidential Inauguration
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 | General, Society | No Comments
Four questions regarding yesterday’s inaugural hoopla. One is serious, and other three are a little lighter.
1. Much has been made of the idea that Obama is our “first African-American President,” and that America is finally not judging a leader by the color of his skin. Isn’t calling Barack Obama “African-American” an act of clearly judging him based on the color of his skin? I ask that question not because it uses the term “African-American;” instead, I ask it because he is not African-American. Shouldn’t we be saying “Obama is our first Black President?” And before anyone protests my use of the word “Black,” let me preemptively say that Black is the politically correct term for this particular race (the US Census Burea via the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs designate the official ‘politically correct’ terminology at any given time).
“African-American” is a term used to designate a citizen of the United States who has ancestral origins in Africa, most likely because those ancestors were brought here for slavery. Much attention has been give to the fact that Obama’s mother is white and his father is Kenyan, which means he was not brought to America for slavery. Black people in Kenya, and almost every other country in the world, are refered to as “Black” because that is their skin color; they are not called “African-American.” In fact, the US Census, which as I pointed about above, recognizes that your race can be “Black” or “African-American.”
Obama has a Caucasian mother and a Black father. He is an American with an African father, but he is not African-American. He is just as much Caucasian as he is Black, so calling him “African-American” means he is being judged entirely on the color of his skin. That, my friends, is a true examply of irony!
2. Obama was attending inaugural balls and celebrating until 3am last night. He then woke up early today to begin his first full day as President. He has a full schedule of meeting with aides, dignitaries, and visitors (citizens who won a contest through his website), signing proclamations and decrees, and doing the other things a president does on day 1. As a result, several news outlets made a big deal about the President starting Day One very early after a late night.
My question is this: how does the President wake up in the morning? Does he use his own alarm clock that he bought for $20 at Target because it provides the option of waking up to buzzer, radio, or mp3? Or does he have the world’s greatest alarm clock, engineered just for him by top scientists, and capable of triggering the exact right brain waves to wake him? Or does an intern have the job of coming in each morning and gently nudging his presidential foot until he wakes up?
3. Finally, Barack and Michelle were out last night. So who looked after daughters Malia and Sasha? Did the Obamas look through Craigslist for an available babysitter? Did some unlucky Secret Service agent get stuck playing tea party and watching High School Musical 3 with the girls? Did the First Mother-in-Law spend the night in the Lincoln Bedroom? Did they ask George W. Bush if he had any recommendations?
[Update: I have since been informed that Mrs. Robinson, the First Mother-in-Law, lives in the White House and babysat Malia and Sasha on Tuesday night. They did, in fact, watch "High School Musical 3" -- which I suggested in jest!]
4. What do you think W did last night? I bet he did the same thing I did: he turned on ABC at 9pm to watch Scrubs, only to find out it wasn’t on because ABC was broadcasting the Inaugural Ball all night. I bet he screamed and cursed just as loud as me, too. As The Todd would say: “Ex-President Five!”
Forget the Curse of Billy Penn…hello, Charm of the Eyebrows!
Monday, January 12th, 2009 | General, Philly | No Comments
I moved back to my hometown of Philly in May with my wife, who grew up in California with only a passing interest in professional sports. I now can follow my favorite sports teams very closely, and I also am fortunate enough to have a wife who wants to become a fan of the local teams. It is fun to watch Ali slowly falling in love with with the Philly sports scene. It is even more fun watching her understanding of sports develop; before moving to Philly, “sports” meant watching a game and seeing who scored more goals, points, or runs. Her definition of “sports” still involves watching the games, but has developed to include the joy of identifying with the players and learning each of their individual stories.
She knows all about the Jimmy Rollins’ yearly predictions; Pat Burrell’s rise, fall, and eventual rise again, before his departure and subsequent signing with the Tampa Bay Rays; that Jamie Moyer ditched school to watch the championship parade in 1980; Carlos Ruiz steady defensive play as a catcher after lying to accepting a challenge from a scout who said he’d only be interested in him if he was a catcher (he was a 2B at the time; he told the scout he would try catcher, despite never playing there in his life), and even that his nickname is “Chooch”; that Brian Dawkins responded to being criticized earlier this season for being too old and slow by taking it out on the Eagles’ opponents throughout the rest of the season and post-season; that the Flyers are a tough team and there is nothing more exciting than Game 7 in the NHL playoffs than overtime in Game 7 in the NHL playoffs — especially when your team wins, like the Flyers did in May; the agony of waiting 25 years to see a championship; and the joy we take in watching our rivals suffer. Especially the Cowboys, Mets, and Giants. Ali has truly become a Philadelphia sports fan. Her development in this area probably received a boost by the Phillies winning the 2008 World Series and the Eagles recent, unexpected run in the 2009 Playoffs. But I digress…
Ali’s education in Philadelphia sports included a whole section on the Curse of Billy Penn. I even updated the lesson to include the actions of workers building the Comcast Building, which is now the tallest building in Philadelphia. For those who don’t know, the workers wanted to break the curse so they placed a tiny statue of William Penn on the top beam in the building, restoring him to the tallest point in the city. The Phillies then win the 2008 World Series, so some argue that it worked.
I would like to propose another reason for the Phillies victory in 2008, and it is one that can be confirmed in a few short weeks. During the Phillies’ run, Ali noticed that Pat Burrell has very oddly shaped eyebrows. Three weeks later, the Phillies won the World Series. Then, during yesterday’s game, she noticed that Donovan McNabb also has oddly shaped eyebrows. Not only are his eyebrows weird, but they are the exact same triangular shape as Pat Burrell’s eyebrows (see picture below)!!! Even more amazing is that Ali noticed this about McNabb on January 11 — exactly three weeks before the Super Bowl! That’s right, I am dubbing this phenomenon “Charm of the Eyebrows!”
Burrell and McNabb also share the fact they were first round picks by Phillies and Eagles in their respective sport’s drafts. If the Eagles win the Super Bowl (I can’t believe I just typed that; 3 months ago I would be chastised for jinxing them by typing that!), you’d better believe that we will spend time in May checking the eyebrows of the Flyers players who were first round picks!!!
The Charm of the Eyebrows