Gas Prices too motherfucking high

Earlier in the year I wrote a post saying relative to other goods, by the gallon, gas is still a good value. It seems that the tables have turned as P.Diddy reveals in his latest video blog post that he is forced to fly...commercial. Yes, the jet is grounded and American Airlines has earned another passenger. I'm glad that Diddy feels the plight and can relate to the common man. Diddy was even kind enough to offer some advice to "tell whoever the next president is that we need to bring gas back down."

I don't want to blame it all on 9/11...but it certainly didn't help

I must say it's really refreshing to see a level of professionalism and modesty in professional basketball, especially among the olympic. Case in point, following the United State's Gold Medal Basketball win under the direction of Coach K, 2004 coach Larry Brown was able to lend some nice words by blaming his loss on injuries...and 9/11.

"We had guys that committed and then all of a sudden 9/11 happened, and then there were injuries" - Larry Brown.

Brown poorly aseembled a team lacking long range shooters and defenders. Perhaps that and personal hubris are to blame among the ever increasing talent in international basketball. Or... it could be 9/11.

Today's Moment of Zen

Brought to you from the world of women's wrestling...ouch.

Also, in the vein of olympic something or another, please check out what might be the most ridiculous sport ever. Men's race walking. All you need is the first 30 seconds or so of the video to get a real flavor of this sport. You'll either find it hilarious or deeply disturbing.
NBC Olympics: Men's 20km Race Walk

Newsflash: Chinese Gymnasts not 16

It would appear that the International Olympic Committee has finally started paying attention to what everyone is saying about the Chinese Women's Gymnastics team at this year's Olympic Games. They've ordered an investigation into the ages of the girls, some of whom might be as young as 14.

Nobody's really sure why the I.O.C. has suddenly begun investigating now, after the gymnastics competition is over. Perhaps it was Nastia Liukin's dad, who was mad that she didn't win gold medals. Or maybe an Olympic official was listening to Bela Karolyi when he semi-coherently stated his opnion on NBC that the Chinese team was entirely too young. You can find the video here. Please watch it, it's hilarious.

Oh? But the Chinese government provided passports to prove that the girls were of age, you say? Isn't this the same government who put some pretty girl out to lip-sync the national anthem, because the singer was too ugly? I think they could whip up a passport or two in their spare time.

But honestly, who cares? Even if the I.O.C. finds wrong-doing--which they probably will, and then subsequently not publicize--nothing will happen. We're going to continue begging China to invest in the dollar and they're going to continue doing whatever the hell they want. Because there's really no point into launching an investigation that will cost time, and money, and will end with no net change.

Source: The New York Times

You Have too Many Facebook Apps

There needs to be some kind of reasonable restriction on the number of applications that one is allowed to add to his or her Facebook page.

Take Exhibit A, below. This was taken from the the Myspace Facebook page of one of my friends.
Look at how many applications he has! I was going to write on his wall, except wait! I couldn't find it under literally a cacophany of applications. In conclusion, it was bad news bears.

And you know what, friend? I didn't write on your wall. Because I couldn't find it. So you missed out on a perfectly good wall post, which I'm sure you're keeping track of. Because that's how vain you are.

This is part one of our one part series on too many Facebook apps.

Alternate Side of the Street Parking

Seriously, when is it not "in effect," and why must every tri-state area local morning news feel compelled to tell you?

Thank you for helping me clean up the place

Dear Former Roommates:

I would just like to take a second to thank you for helping me remove some of the clutter from the apartment we all used to occupy. I know that the place was a bit cramped, but we made the best of it didn't we?

So as we're clearing out the apartment, thanks for also helping me get rid of some of my stuff--the four bottles of wine that you took from my wine box. I probably would have never gotten around to drinking them anyway. But more importantly--thanks for leaving the one with the screw top. After all, I wouldn't have been able to get it open, because you probably also took my cork screw.

When you open the 2004 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon, please make sure to decant it for at least two hours prior to drinking it. Although I got it as a birthday present 2 years ago, I know you'll be able to derive more value out of it than I would ever be able to. Before it's opened, you should probably chill it slightly, to about 67 degrees, in order to release the full complexity of the grapes.

The Twisted Oak white should be chilled to anywhere between 45 and 50 degrees. Drink it immediately after opening, and make sure to savor the crisp refreshing blend of California grapes. I've found that this particular bottle tends towards the dryer side of the spectrum so it will probably go nice with a sharp cheese. I could also envision it going lovely with a rich chicken dish. But after all, it's your bottle now so use at your discretion.

The two Latin American reds both should be decanted for anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. I can't remember the names of them, but one was a delicious, spicy rich wine, i believe coming from Argentina. It's also very moderately priced, if you like it, I hope you continue to buy it. It's one of my favorites, please enjoy it. The other one, probably the most expensive bottle in my collection, has been aging for about 3 years. I was going to open it when I graduated. But it's probably too complex for my palate anyway, so please take it, and enjoy it with my complements.

Anyway, I'm glad that you're able to enjoy one of my favorite past times. Ben, because you told me when you were really drunk that you were taking a class to learn about wines at Cornell in the fall, I'm going to go ahead and assume it was you. I hope you can enjoy and savor them as much as I was going to.

Have a great semester!

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy (Day 3)

Tom Waits stubles onto the set of "Fernwood Tonight," treating the crowd to a version of "The Piano has Been Drinking" and his usual wit with an interview. Tom Waits is a poet madman who speaks in the voice of savage cool. He will be soon seen in the new Terry Gilliam film, "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" as The Devil, not just a devil or any devil...The Devil.

Diamond in the Rough

SPORTS / OLYMPICS

Weather Pattern Clears Pollution Scare

By GINA KOLATA

Published: August 14, 2008

Despite concerns about pollution affecting performances, it turns out that very little is known about whether there is such an effect and, if so, how much.
link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/sports/olympics/14pollution.html

Run of the mill times article...

Boring paragraph

Boring paragraph...due to lucky weather patterns, pollution is not a problem at all in Beijing, just hype.

Blah blah blah, nothing newsworthy.

Wait for it:

"The World Anti-Doping Agency, which is supporting Rundell’s Viagra research, is considering banning it as a performance-enhancer"

That's a direct quote, from about halfway down the article. Viagra--a performance-enhancer. In other news, the sky is still blue and you do, in fact, still have to pay taxes.

Apples, Carl Sagan, and the 4th Dimension (Day 2)

If there was ever someone to explain the 4th dimension in an easy to understand manner it would be Carl Sagan. Utilizing a red delcious apple, a knife, and some pieces of paper, Sagan represents a world that we can't fully comprehend in our minds and our left with ideas, conjecture, and hypercubes.

Dear D.C. Cabbies (again)

As you may or may not recall, I think the taxi system in Washington, D.C. is a complete and total disaster. And one cog in this clusterfuck machine is, of course, the cab drivers themselves. I feel like they (the cabbies) don't understand exactly how the meters (or the meter system) works, and therefore they make it run a lot worse.

Example #1: Stopping at every light that looks like it might turn yellow sort of soon. Maybe. One plus of the zone system was that when you got in a cab, you got to your destination fast. Because they understood that more fares = more money. For some reason, with the time and distance meters cab drivers think the paradigm has changed. It hasn't.

Every time a cab driver picks up a fare, that's $4.00. The flag drop costs $3.00, and the gas surcharge is another $1. When you stop at the light, its 25 cents a minute. Using logic, one might think that the goal is to get to your destination as quick as possible to get another easy $4.00. Cab driver logic dictates otherwise.

Example #2: Inching forward at that red light you just stopped at. As far as I can remember, this never happened under the zone system. I don't really know why it happens now. For one, it wears out the brakes faster, and the transmission for that matter. For another, being a passenger, it's really annoying and provides a disincentive to tip well.

The only cab driver logic I can think of to justify this is that if the wheels are rolling, then it's increased distance on the meter. Here's the thing: it's not. The meter only calculates distance when the car is going 10 m.p.h or faster (hence why NYC cabbies drive so fast) so it's really not doing anything. Except annoying the shit out of me.

So in summation, cab drivers, please stop sucking so bad, because in the end you're only hurting yourselves.

10 videos in 10 days - 1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4
monsters walking across the floor
I love counting, counting to the number 4

Feist on yesterday's episode of Sesame Street

It's The Economy, Stupid

Stanley Bing, Fortune's resident last page columnist, has a new column out regarding the state of our economy. The gist of his argument is, and I'm paraphrasing, life on earth has always been tough, so we might as well spend more money now, because, why not? You can read the more thorough version here.

Apparently, the root of our economic trouble is the fact that CNBC has a 24 hour news scroll and bloggers are the 21st century version of malcontents. It's not like the country's top lending institutions have been just completely screwing the little guy. It's not like car companies have resisted mile-per-gallon improvements for years, and when oil prices suddenly shoot up because of increased worldwide demand, the American driver takes a bath. No, it's clearly the fault of the news media, and the consumer who watches it. It's never big business's fault.

Well, as Stan pointed out, it could be worse. We could be living with the threat of nuclear war with the Soviets. We could be living during the time of the Crusades. Tell that to someone who could be only days away from losing his/her house or job. You can console their homelessness with the fact that at least they won't have to go to the Middle East and try and take back Jerusalem.

Comrade Bing suggests ignorance. Only watch 45 minutes of news a day. Don't read blogs. Take a soma holiday. This is exactly the type of thought process that got us into our current financial situation in the first place.

Just one more thing before I sign off here, Stanley says that "Three-quarters of our economy is built upon our willingness to part with our money in exchange for goods and services." What I'm still trying to figure out is, what's the other quarter based on?

So, "Get out there every goddamn weekend and pump as much money as you can back into the economy." Too bad it's money that you probably don't have to begin with.