Fire Sale

LeGarrette Blount jerseys (#9 for Oregon - the guy who went cuckoo for cocoa puffs in Boise Thursday and was subsequently suspended for the year - you may have heard?) are now 40% off.

Hyperizing

Wow, one post for August? Weak.

What commercials annoy you? My list includes any of the Progressive Insurance spots featuring that irritating quirky woman who reminds me of Jillian from The Bachelorette, the numbers intensively cheesy grey and yellow Sprint Mobile commercials, NBC's promos for Trauma (I really can't stand the "I love my job" chopper pilot) and Mercy, and Safe Auto's "Justin Case" series. Ugh.

My new favorite commercial (by far) is any segment of this:



Chief Blocka - Andre Igoudala
Fog Raw - Mo Williams
Velvet Hoop - Kevin Durant
Ice-O - Rashard Lewis

"This is about heart and hustle, if you like staying underground maybe you should wrestle." - Ice-O

The Lethal Weapon

Last time I experienced a celebrity sighting was when I spotted REM bassist Mike Mills sitting across from LRK and me at our gate in Sangster International Airport, Montego Bay, Jamaica, waiting for our flight back to the States.

Well, yesterday evening I accompanied LRK to the Capitol City Lowes. As we were checking out, a familiar, bearded face accompanied by a pair of large arms got in line behind us. I immediately identified the guy as an old professional wrestler (my brother and I used to watch every week, back in the day), but I was totally drawing a blank on his name. The only word that came to mind was "weapon."

Anyway, I try not to act like an idiot on the rare occasion I run into celebrities, so I didn't say anything or make a scene. But when we got home, I immediately hit the Internet and googled "wwf wrestler+weapon."

As it turns out, I ran into "The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman. Nice!

Will You Be There

Jennifer Hudson performing "Will You Be There" today at the Michael Jackson Memorial. My favorite performance from the event.

Wave the Wheat

LRK and I arrived back in PA late Wednesday night. Props to AirTran - their service was good, flights were smooth and the price was right. Southwest may well become the Wally Pipp of TINWA air travel to Kansas.

Some highlights:

+ Awesome home cooked meals that frequently featured vegetables straight from the H garden.
+ Watching Gran Torino - awesome.
+ Rock hunting with Mr. H.
+ Dinner at the Brookville Hotel. If you don't know, you better ask somebody.
+ Temps in the 100's.
+ Being in Kansas during harvest.
+ Riding in a combine.

My prior experience with combines was seeing Frank the Combine in the movie Cars.

My Yellowbrick Road

Stole the title from a Scrubs episode. LRK and I are heading to Kansas Saturday. Be back late Wednesday (AirTran, I'm looking at you).

The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien's Twitter Tracker is hilarious.

Craigslist: Not Just for Psychos II

Still with time on my hands, LRK and I started thinking of some other stuff we could sell. Upon a recent trip to the TINWA mothership, my parental units suggested a portable grill I won a little over a year ago, now residing in their basement.

To craigslist (again)!

I posted the grill (a Weber Q 100) Sunday afternoon. By early evening I had two interested parties. I contacted the first, who tried to haggle me down. I scoffed. Then I contacted the second, who had already found another suitable grill. Monday brought two more interested parties. The first one just purchased the grill a short time ago. Yay!

I just wish my job search results thus far would be as fruitful as my craigslist postings.

/Brainstorming for more stuff I no longer use that others may find value in

Pity Party

Hey, I was one of 345,000.

So I got that goin' for me... which is nice. Not!

To top that off, I discovered Friday afternoon that I provided PA Unemployment with the wrong/incomplete account number to get funds direct deposited into our bank account. The hits just seem to keep on coming.

Arbitron Crank Yankers

A few weeks ago, I agreed to be random sample for Arbitron's radio ratings. It seemed harmless enough, and they were sending me a couple bucks with every communication. As part of the agreement, I had to keep a daily diary of the radio stations I listened to and where I listened to them (i.e. car, Internet, work, etc.) for one week. At the end (yesterday), I would mail back my diary to Arbitron, and they would send me a crispy check for $10!

So they called the day before my week was to start, to make sure I had the diary and was clear on everything. I assured them that I was. Then they called the next day. I did not pick up, because I recognized the number and didn't feel the need to speak to one of their call center people again.

Then they called the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. They called every freaking day during my diary week. Being a male aged 18-35, I was a valuable commodity because my demographic typically does not agree to be a random sample, and those that do tend not to follow through with returning the diary. I wanted to tell them that I am not a stereotype, but instead I just never answered the phone.

Anyway, I placed my completed diary in the mail yesterday. Now I'm waiting for that big $10 check. I should note because I was lazy, I listened to the same station for pretty much the entire week (WXPN).

Craigslist: Not Just for Psychos

LRK and I (through marrying her) had a treadmill. Since we both belong to a gym and make an effort to hit it at least two times a week to justify paying the monthly charge, we never used the treadmill. It sat in an unused bedroom. One day LRK suggested we get rid of it.

To craigslist!

With some time on my hands, I got around to snapping some photos of ol' tready. Then I basically plagiarized some Delaware craigslist posting for the same machine. I hit publish, then I waited.

For about 20 minutes. It seems a priced-to-sell treadmill is a pretty popular item on Harrisburg craigslist. I received about six emails the day I posted the machine, and about four the morning after. (I wish I had this type of response in sending out resumes). We ended up selling the treadmill to a nice, younger teacher. I hope she gets a lot of miles out of it... even though she admitted after making the purchase that she didn't particularly like to run.

This Stinks

I got laid off... a couple weeks ago. Wtf? You know the deal about the economy. And the company I worked for wasn't exactly well-run. Ugh. Hindsight being 20/20, I rather regret taking that job. I have stories. Brett, Flood and LRK know a few.

Yes, I did think of quitting this blog (hence the lack of recent posts). But like Jack Twist to Ennis Del Mar, my internal discussion over this dumb blog ended with me saying something similar to this:



Anyway, "this guy" is looking for work. I don't even care anymore, as long as it is stable and pays decently. For those interested in statistics, here is my resume distribution the past few weeks:

5/17 - 5/23: 14
5/24 - 5/30: 10
5/31 - 6/6: developing...

Tillman

Arizona State and Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman died over 5 years ago by friendly fire in Afghanistan. Mike Fish's four-part investigative piece surrounding Tillman's death and the Army's response - An Un-American Tragedy - is around 3 years old. V. late to the party, I know, but if you have time, pour through it.

Being Deke

Who doesn't like some quality Dikembe Mutombo impressions?

H1N1

I'm waiting for M.I.A. to cut a song titled Swine Flu. Related.

+ Caught some of The Punisher last night on F/X. I watched some bits of it before. I'd like to see the whole movie in its entirety one day. It looks decent. Any confirmation?

Home Depot

I'm not a Redskins fan, but I think Cooley's quite a character and I liked having him on my fantasy team last year. I check out his blog on occasion, and via AthleteTweets (my current web fixation) I follow him. He just tweeted his most recent blog post - a funny story with vid on a recent adventure cutting down a tree. Oh no, you didn't.

I've had similar experiences undertaking a home project with high hopes and confidence only to be humbled on the first try.

+ This link is a very funny take on the Raiders recent draft. That's so funny. Wonder what McJunkins is up to?

The Soloist

I appreciate classical music, but am in no way an aficionado or anything along those lines. Still, when I caught The Soloist trailer for the first time, I was immediately pulled in by the song (see, I don't even know what it's called) performed on the cello. Anyway, I was interested in seeing this movie - especially since it seemed to fall into the elusive category of a flick both LRK and I would be agreeable to seeing - together.

Reading Kenneth Turan's not-so glowing review put a damper on my enthusiasm, but I remain undeterred. Although now I'll probably focus more on reading "The Soloist", now that I've finished "Friday Night Lights."



+ Excellent, excellent interview with Col. Steven Kleinman. Heard it on NPR yesterday on the drive home. "Let us not let the adversary set the standard, especially if it causes us to lower our standard."

Bleacher Bum

Fan buzz is positive over the improvements to the Harrisburg Senator's Commerce Metro Bank Park. I'm strongly considering hitting City Island Saturday evening for a game.

+ Have you noticed every weekend Wolf Furniture drums up a reason to hold a sale?

Tea Party

Stolen from the brilliant Josh Marshall at TPM:

"Does the lack of any actual tax increases undercut this anti-tax rebellion?"

I would also add air quotes around the word "rebellion." The turnouts for these astroturfy events were not exactly stellar.

eNnnnnn B C

The peacock net is prepping for a big night. Parks & Recreation and Southland bow.

P&I tries to replicate The Office magic. "Troubled." Needs to "find its footing." Majority of characters unlikable?

I'm not getting my hopes up.

Southland replaces ER. Heavily promoted. A "clunky" cop drama.

How awesome is Training Day!? Still. Anyway... I told LRK that I highly doubt Southland will give NBC 15 years like its predeccesor. Hopefully, it doesn't give it one. I'm beyond sick of hearing "Orange Sky."

Fortunately, two, new episodes of The Office and a new 30 Rock are sandwiched around Parks to compensate for any discomfort provided by the P&I pilot.

Don't Go There

In what world is it okay for supervisors and zoning board officials to violate their own regulations, reward and support illegal puppy mills and direct a stenographer to cease making a record of a public proceeding?

Colerain Township, Lancaster County.

Smells fishy (as well as hypocritical, unjust and unlawful) imo. Sounds like someone should look into these Colerain Township supervisors and *cough* moronic and simple-minded *cough* zoning board members.

I would advise against visiting Colerain Township, or patronizing any of the businesses within its boundaries. Also, check the post label.