Month: October 2012

It Was A Beautiful Day

It’s Halloween night as I type this, but it’s one of those days I wish could never end. Usually, my days can’t end fast enough. Today was different in many ways.

I have news over at the Boiler Room Chronicles regarding my job status.  It has changed for the better and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

Today is my 183rd day with Harry The Cat, kind of the unofficial mascot of the house.  Tomorrow, he goes back home to his owners, my landlords.  It was a pleasure to have him over here, as he keeps me company over some lonely times. Thanks, bud.

Everything just came together for me in its own synergistic way.  Has me excited about the waning days of 2012 and the year of 2013 ahead.

The Soledad Of The Matter

Usually I don’t rush to the TV first thing in the morning on a weekday, but as I went to bed last night, Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy was still wreaking her havoc on the Eastern seaboard.  I sensed that the damage reports would be coming in fast and furious, so I turned on CNN and saw the cranky face of Soledad O’ Brien.

I remember watching Soledad when MSNBC had a technology show on from 7pm to 8pm every weekday back in the late 1990’s, and she would spend time chatting things up with a virtual character named Dev Null, voiced by Leo LaPorte.  These days Soledad does the morning show on CNN, and I’d since found (doing a little research) out that her hosting style has made her the target of criticism, especially of conservatives, plus there have also been accusations that she’s anti-Semetic, of all things.

She seemed pushy and rude to me as she interviewed the head of FEMA, Craig Fugate.  I would like to give her the benefit of the doubt because I don’t watch her all that much, and maybe the IFB delay was giving her troubles in the post-Sandy environment of her remote location.  But two points, if I may.  One: Soledad is no spring chicken.  And two: she can’t go back to sipping coffee, conversing with a cartoon character.

Watching Sandy

Tampa Bay is getting it’s first real chill of the season.  It was in the 50’s this morning in Tampa, about 60 here in Pinellas Park.  When the temps start dipping below 60, you know fall has arrived here.

Having lived in some colder climates in my lifetime, I find it humorous when the older people in the neighborhood break out the cold weather gear when it falls below 70.  But then again, I’m not them.  They may be more sensitive to the cold then I am.

But Sandy is the lady of the hour.  It is (as I type this) an 85 mph hurricane, it is expected to lose its tropical characteristics today as it hits lower New Jersey as it merges its energies with a cold front.  So you have the bizarre situation of a hurricane hitting the Jersey Shore with NO watches and warnings preceding it.  Our local ace meteorologist Denis Phillips over at WFTS (ABC Action News) in Tampa pointed out this loophole in how this kind of storm situation is handled yesterday.

And I totally agree: perhaps during the hurricane off-season a month away, the governing bodies of weather in the United States can get together and close this kind of loophole for the 2013 hurricane season and beyond.

The Menagrie Of Games

So I’ve spent most of the day watching the menagerie of college football games on television, although at this very moment I have the third game of the 2012 World Series on, waiting for the Notre Dame-Oklahoma game to resume from the halftime break.

There are currently 124 teams that play in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision, which is what they call Division I football these day.  So when you count the bowl games and conference championships, over 750 games are played over the course of a season.  Over the course of those 750 games, the Las Vegas odds makers will usually make mistakes, which is why I think these games are so appealing to sports gamblers.  The drawback is that you’re dealing with teams with 18-22 year old players on them is most cases.

An example of such a mistake is brewing right now as I type this in Norman, Oklahoma at Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium.  Notre Dame, a school out of South Bend, Indiana, is having one of their best seasons in about a decade.  They hold a 10-6 lead after the first half despite being 12 point underdogs and despite a key running back unable to play in the game due to injury.  Notre Dame looks cool and confident, while the Sooners look agitated and trying to filibuster the officials for calls here and there.

As I go to publish this, the second half is just beginning.  Interested to see how this game plays out.  Ah, the volatility of college football.

Wake Me When It’s Over

So I was sound asleep this Thursday afternoon when the phone rang. It was a young lady of no more than about 20 wanting me to volunteer to vote for President Obama.

I politely declined.

I really don’t want to be a mouthpiece for any politician, no matter how good or bad they may be. Even our President.

Last night, I had Americans For Prosperity call me up. Quickly checking my Blackberry to discover that they were conservative, I promptly hung up on them.

I did my part. I voted. So do me one favor. Wake me up when the election cycle is over.

Queen Of The B Movie

Sylvia Kristel passed on last week in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.  Many of you younger than me are already wondering who in the world I’m talking about.

Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s mainly, Kristel was the queen of the B movie, more famous for wearing little or no clothes in her movies as opposed to wearing clothes.  Cinemax would run her movies frequently, and a certain teenager happened to spent many a summer evening watching them back in the 1980’s: me.  I was probably a little too young for the subject matter, but then again, when are you ever too old for the subject matter?

Always thought she was strikingly beautiful either way.  More often than not, she always seemed to play a woman named Emanuelle.  Emanuelle always seemed to be doing all kinds of things with men, sometimes women, sometimes both.  Kind of like a Disney World version of pornography.

So if you’re younger than 40, type her name into Google.  It was a different time, but a beautiful woman is and remains timeless.

If You Can’t Stop Them, Slow Them Down

The Google/Prime 29 scamsters have come back for me.  How wonderful.  Do they not realize I did a YouTube video on this back in March?  I guess not.

I got a call from 206-496-0913 Friday afternoon, saying it was my last chance to get in good graces with this program or device that you cannot see that boosts business owners placing on Google.  Of course, I’m not a business owner.  The previous recipient of my cell phone may have been.

So I hit “1” to talk to someone live, and when they asked their question, I hung up, thinking if that was my so-called last chance, I wouldn’t have to talk to these people again by intentionally exhausting my last chance.  As I suspected, no such luck.  Monday they start calling and calling some more.  So much for that last chance.

So then they start calling me from another number: 949-202-1151.  I hit “1” again, but this time doing so doesn’t transfer me over to someone live, so that irked me a bit.  Time to spend a little time and get a little dirty, as it turned out this was a number I could call them back on.

I called them back three times, hanging up on them the first two times.  The third time I went through their paces, totally lacking seriousness about the process.  The guy on the other send said something about not having the number in their Google, Yahoo, or Bing files.

“Oh well,” I respond.  CLICK!

So hopefully, I don’t hear from them again.  If so, my webcam is standing by, and that 949 number will get a call from me every time it does.  Please Prime 29, try me.

They Didn’t Get It

Yesterday, I was over at a friend’s house here in Pinellas Park, and like many here in the Tampa Bay area I watched the Buccaneers game with the New Orleans Saints.

For those of you who missed it, it was a rather wild affair.  Tampa Bay was up 21-7 at one point, only for the Saints to come back to lead 35-21.  The Bucs trailed 35-28 with five seconds left in regulation time, facing a fourth and goal (in other words, one down to score a touchdown).  It was in all likelihood the last play of the game, unless a defensive penalty was committed.  Josh Freeman scrambled and threw the ball to Mike Williams for an apparent touchdown, if the extra point had been successful.  The game would have been a 35-35 tie heading to overtime.

But not so fast.  Williams had stepped out of the playing field during the play, so it was illegal for him to have made the first touch of a thrown ball.

The FOX announcers, Dick Stockton and John Lynch, did a terrible job clarifying that rule.  Stockton, a respected play-by-play sports guy going back to the 1960’s, seems to freeze up at moments that could use clarifying.  He seems much better at basketball than baseball and football.  But I will say this for him: he may by the only man to do play-by-play on four different networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX) and do the four major pro sports (MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL).

Why they didn’t bring Mike Pereira in to clear that up, as the Awful Announcing blog suggests?  Beats me.

The Debate That Won’t End The Debate

The second Presidential debate between the current holder of that office, Barack Obama, and challenger Mitt Romney was in my view one of the wildest POTUS debates ever held.  I thought Obama narrowly won it.

I’m sure by now you’ve heard all the talking heads weigh in with their opinions on what happened at Hofstra University Tuesday night past.  But one thing seems for certain: the election is going to be very close.  Perhaps even closer than the much ballyhooed 2000 elections.

My nightmare scenario is this: what if President Obama loses a close election which, much like 2000, could take days or weeks to verify?  I don’t think we have ever had a sitting president contest an election, at least not since the 19th century.  Remember, a sitting president, theoretically at least, could play a few more cards than two candidates fighting for a soon to be vacant position can.

I’m not saying this is likely to happen, but what if Mr. Obama says, in effect, until this is resolved, I’m not leaving the office.  Then you could have an epic constitutional crisis.  But remember, this is a huge IF at this point.

And anything can happen up to that point.  I note that in a week’s time, we will have three aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, for one thing.  Could this be what conspiracy buffs would call an October Surprise?

 

Hulk vs. Bubba

I’m sure many of you have been paying attention to the whole Bubba The Love Sponge and Hulk Hogan fiasco.  They’re both celebrities in my neck of the woods, so let me throw my two cents in.

In short, I think this is all a put on.  As they say in the wrestling business, it is a work.  Showmanship.  A variation of the old “Fingerpoke Of Doom” trick.  It’s just a question of who is really doing the poking (HAH!) and who is really doing the lay down.

If my guess is correct, the whole matter will be settled out of court and the outcome of the settlement never gets disclosed to the public.  We’ll see what transpires before us on that.  Meanwhile, back to other things.