Tuesday, July 31, 2007

5 Year Anniversary

Come this October of this year, it will be my 5 year anniversary with the company I work. For this glorious occasion I will be able to attend a banquet in my honor, along with others also reaching this milestone.

In addition to honor for yours truly, they offer a lovely gift (service award) of my choosing. Since they want you to have your gift prior to this date, which makes sense to me, they let you select the item out ahead of time. So today I went online to see what they offer. There are about 25 different items. Some of the items are many different types of desk awards, a cosmetic case, jewelry, a globe, and of course the traditional watch.

I was reading the descriptions of these items when I came to the globe and found the note under the description:

if you request this award to ship to a location in India, customs officials there have not allowed the item into the country due to their concerns about mapping on the globe.

I am sure this is due to area that India and Pakistan both claim and have been fighting over for many of years. But am I curious does the globe show this area in favor of Pakistan, or is Pakistan customs not so uptight, or is it mainly due to the fact that no awards go to Pakistan.

What ever the case maybe, I am not curious enough to order the gift. Anyway can I pass up the cosmetic cases, I think not!!!

Monday, July 30, 2007

Words of Advice From Homer

What I've Learned: Homer Simpson
Nuclear-power-plant safety inspector, 39, Springfield
Interviewed by John Frink and Don Payne

When someone tells you your butt is on fire, you should take them at their word.

There is no such thing as a bad doughnut.

Kids are like monkeys, only louder.

If you want results, press the red button. The rest are useless.

There are many different religions in this world, but if you look at them carefully, you'll see that they all have one thing in common: They were invented by a giant, super intelligent slug named Dennis.

You should just name your third kid Baby. Trust me -- it'll save you a lot of hassle.

You can have many different jobs and still be lazy.

You can get free stuff if you mention a product in a magazine interview. Like Chips Ahoy! cookies.

You may think it's easier to de-ice your windshield with a flamethrower, but there are repercussions. Serious repercussions.

There are some things that just aren't meant to be eaten.

There are way too many numbers. The world would be a better place if we lost half of them -- starting with 8. I've always hated 8.

Be generous in the bedroom -- share your sandwich.

I've climbed the highest mountains . . . fallen down the deepest valleys . . . I've been to Japan and Africa . . . and I've even gone into space. But I'd trade it all for a piece of candy right now.

Every creature on God's earth has a right to exist. Except for that damn ruby-throated South American warbler.

I don't need a surgeon telling me how to operate on myself.

Sometimes I think there's no reason to get out of bed . . . then I feel wet, and I realize there is.

Let me just say, Winnie the Pooh getting his head caught in a honey pot? It's not funny. It can really happen.

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll get a hook caught on his eyelid or something.

I made a deal with myself ten years ago . . . and got ripped off.

Never leave your car keys in a reactor core.

Always trust your first instinct -- unless it tells you to use your life savings to develop a Destructo Ray.

When you borrow something from your neighbor, always do it under the cover of darkness.

Never throw a butcher knife in anger.

The hardest thing I've had to face as a father was burying my own child. He climbed back out, but it still hurts.

If doctors are so right, why am I still alive?
I love natural disasters because we're allowed to get out of work.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Plethora of Scandal in Sports

I saw part of the 3 Amigos last weekend, hence the use of Plethora.

In the past there seemed to be some sort of scandal occasionally happening in the world of sports, with long breaks in between. The times seem to be over where there was no crap involved and story was the games.

Over the past month there has been the continuing steroids in Baseball with Barry Bonds approaching the home run record, Michael Vicks supposed dog fighting allegations, NBA referee betting on games that he influenced the outcome, and the normal stories about the Tour de France. At least the stories with the Tour de France is not involving any American riders, but this is probably due to that there isn’t any left in the race.

Since there are more scandals lately, I believe there is so much talk on these stories due to a simple reason. There is nothing worthy of reporting once the NBA season is over (aka, the summer months). I think they need to move around the schedules of a few sports to accommodate this slow time. How about keeping college football with the current schedule and move the NFL season right after the college seasons ends. There would be foot ball almost year around, giving all sports writers an alternative subject matter. Or the NBA could be moved, so the finals are right before the beginning of football season

Relapse

Well end of last week I had an relapse in my attempt to quite smoking. Over the weekend I was struggling, but got through it.

In the news there was another individual that relap

Damn, I am sure I didn’t look that bad. This almost surpassed Nick Nolte mug shot, but failed in the crazy hairdo





Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Useless Information ?? (I lost count)

It has been awhile since I posted some useless information, I thought it was about time. To assist me in this post, I used HOW MANY OF ME website that I found in Brian Alone blog. Since I don’t know how credible this site is, no guarantee on its accuracy. But I found it interesting:

- There are 302,406,144 people in the United States of America, with at least 88,799 different last names and 5,163 different first names in common use.

There are:
- 49,938 named John Smith
- 1,0597 named James Bond
- 507 named George Bush
- 114 named Harry Potter
- 13 Lee Majors
- 3 Frank Sinatra
- 0 Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don’t see how this is possible, there should be at least 1. Unless they are talking born in the US. If that is the case the statistics are not correct. Or possible it is not the Governator’s real name.

More on the personal side, there are:
- 3,113 named Jason Anderson. I knew three growing up.
- 3,930 with my last name, which is ranked 8515th. The rank is actually high than I thought, especially out of about 89K.
- 65 with James and last name
- 2 with Jim and last name
- James is ranked 1st in the most popular first name, with 5,032,038
- 99.7 % of James are male. I feel sorry for the other 0.3%, which is roughly 15,096. I do have a family member that knew a girl named Jimmy.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Interns

At work we have several interns working this summer. This is the normal, but each year they seem to be younger and younger. Usually after saying something like this, I would be immediately follow it with “No I am just getting older”. But this year, this is not the case. There are 2 interns that are 19 years old, they have only been out of high school for a year. At that age, I was not thinking about my career/job experience. In fact I was almost flunking out of school, mainly because I was only interested in the following subjects: girls, skiing, and partying (ranked in order of importance)

Due to the fact they are 19, I concluded that next year there would be the unlikely chance that they can get even younger. My next thought is that in the years to come interns may seem younger based on how mature they act. After the following, I highly doubt it:

The other day these 2 individuals (1 male and 1 female) mentioned above, were playing a game of Hangman during lunch break. Since they sit right next to me, I couldn’t help over hearing the last game played and being involved in the conversion following the game. The clue was a famous movie for the following:



D E _ _ I E

D _ E S

D _ L L _ S

If you cannot fill in the blanks, "B", "O", "A"

I cannot remember if she actual won the game. She did not believe him concerning the hint/subject, never hearing of the movie. When she asked me, if I had seen the movie. “No I haven’t seen that movie, but I heard of it and agree that it is a famous movie” Eventually someone gave her more information on the movie. I don’t think she found it amusing.

Monday, July 23, 2007

The Count Down is Over

A couple weeks ago my wife asked me if I knew what should be coming out in __ many days? I don’t remember the actual # she used in the question, which shows my excitement. But after giving her the “I don’t have any idea, what is it?” sign. She replied “The new Harry Potter book”.

Well this weekend the final installment of this series went on sell. What was my involvement? Not too much, besides checking the mail a couple of times for Shell and keeping a eye/ear out for UPS guy. Besides checking for a preordered copy to arrive in the mail, I found all the hoopla and speculations going over the internet amusing. How many and which main characters were going to die in the book. Websites claiming to have so called parts of the book. And newspapers able to buy a copy from a local bookstore and then publishing their reviews before the book came out.

There are just too many impatient people. Everybody has to be the first to know what happened and before anybody else. People just need to relax. I know what happens and I didn’t even read the book. I just waited for someone else to read the book and then they told me what happened. Eventually I will have to watch the movie and then I’ll know more of the details.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Shoe News Kind of Day

Kevin Durant the second overall pick by the Seattle Supersonics, just recently turned down a $70 million shoe contract with Adidas. Come to find out that he wanted to only play in his favorite brand of shoes. Nike signed him to a $60 million contract.

Now my experience with Basketball shoes only involve Nike and Rebook, and have only owned running and soccer cleats Adidas. Do Adidas basketball shoes suck that really bad?

Other thoughts were “I thought athletes cared about the money, they do not care about what product they are selling? Or Maybe if you earn this kind of figures it is easy to pass up an additional $10 million.” Who knows, it just seemed strange to me.

Mr. Vick

Also involving shoes and the Atlanta Falcons Michael Vick. Recent indictment by a grand jury to stand trail for his involvement with dog fighting, Nike is considering dropping his contract. That is the whole story about the shoe part and yes I know that it is not interesting. But it links to the shoe theme.

Now I know Vick is innocent until proven guilty. But it seems that the news (and others like humane society) had already found him guilty when police raided his house several months back. I’m not a fan of him or other criminals of the NFL, but I am really getting tired of this crap. Isn’t there anything else to report besides how stupid these athletes are in there personal life. Maybe my annoyance is due football withdraws.

Oh wait there is something

I’m Ready for NFL

Just recently the Cowboys signed a rookie TE free agent from Houston. The things is this guy has only played in 8 football games at the collegiate level with a 101 yards receiving and 1 touchdown for his career. He is the next potential Antonio Gates, which is a basketball player, converting to a football due to his size.

With this news I have an idea. I am available to sign a contact and the minimum NFL salary would be great. Even though I never played football and soccer was more my thing. I use to play basketball, even through it was 1 year in high school. It doesn’t matter that I wasn’t any good. I have the size. Even though most my weight is fat, not muscle. And I have already quite smoking. Maybe I should call some NFL teams.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Follow Up: $65 Million Lawsuit Over Missing Pants

In case anybody is interested a follow up to a pervious post and the ruling to the $65 Million Lawsuit Over Missing Pants (recap):

A judge ruled that no pair of pants is worth $54 million, rejecting a lawsuit that took a dry cleaner's promise of "Satisfaction Guaranteed" to its most litigious extreme.

Originally Pearson sought $67 million from the defendants, claiming they lost a pair of trousers from a blue and maroon suit, then tried to give him a pair of charcoal gray pants that he said were not his.

Pearson arrived at the amount by adding up years of alleged law violations and almost $2 million in common law fraud claims. He then lowered the amount he was seeking to $54 million.

But District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled that the owners of Custom Cleaners did not violate the city's consumer protection law by failing to live up to Pearson's expectations of the "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign once displayed in the store window.

"A reasonable consumer would not interpret 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' to mean that a merchant is required to satisfy a customer's unreasonable demands" or to agree to demands that the merchant would have reasonable grounds for disputing, the judge wrote.

Bartnoff wrote that Pearson, an administrative law judge, failed to prove that the pants the dry cleaner tried to return were not the pants he took in for alterations.

Bartnoff ordered Pearson to pay the court costs of defendants Soo Chung, Jin Nam Chung and Ki Y. Chung. The court costs amount to just over $1,000 for photocopying, filing and similar expenses, according to the Chungs' attorney.

Chris Manning, the Chungs' attorney, praised the ruling, which followed a two-day trial earlier this month.

"Judge Bartnoff has spoken loudly in suggesting that, while consumers should be protected, abusive lawsuits like this will not be tolerated," Manning said in a statement. "Judge Bartnoff has chosen common sense and reasonableness over irrationality and unbridled venom."

Manning, the Chungs' lawyer, said he expected Pearson to appeal.

During the trial, Pearson testified that he wanted only $2 million in damages for himself — for his mental anguish and inconvenience — plus $500,000 in attorney's fees for representing himself. Any additional money that the judge might award would go into a fund "to educate people of their rights under the consumer protection act," he said.

The case garnered international attention and renewed calls for litigation reform.

"This case was giving American justice a black eye around the world, and it was all the more upsetting because it was a judge and lawyer who was bringing the suit," said Paul Rothstein, a Georgetown University law professor. Rothstein said Monday's ruling "restores one's confidence in the legal system."

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Announcement!!!!

Over the past couple of months Shell and I have been spreading the great news to everyone that we have seen. I feel it is time to make an announcement here. In case you did not already know, Shell is pregnant.

The baby is due December 24th, but still fairly early to know any further details. Currently we are preparing for this delightful upcoming event.

Planned Parenthood

The current theory is “I’m losing my mind”

The other day Shell and I were out on the town doing some shopping and looking for stuff for the upcoming birth of our first child. When I asked Shell what do they have at Planned Parenthood, thinking that this was a retail store with products relating to babies. This was followed by a lot of laughing (by Shell). I did not know that it is a free medical clinic for expecting mothers or preventing pregnancy.

Shell found this very amusing, so I thought I would share this story. And our course my defense: First, I have been out of the country for awhile (I know it is a lame excuse, but I will use it as long as possible). Second, this place near us is located in between a restaurant and retail store. Seems to me, an area for a commercial business. Third, I never noticed a commercial on TV for this place until after this discussion. And last and most important, have I been missing out on something in my life due to not knowing this place existed? I think not.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Addiction

Days filled with being short tempered, impatience, shakiness, anxiety, and a having a hungry that will never go away. Some people may be able to relate to signs of trying to successfully achieve a seemly straightforward task.

I currently attempt to quite smoking again. This started last Friday and is going as good as expected, so far. I have lost count on the number attempts proceeded by this time, but hopefully I’m successful and will not gain 50 lbs in the process.

In addition, for the next couple of weeks, I'll need something to do in the slow times. There might be a slew of posts to help prevent thoughts/actions of saying “screw this”, then ripping off my nicotine patch, and mugging a co-worker for their smokes.

36th Hour

The conclusion to the previous post “How Fun Is the Denver Airport”. From where I originally left off, we were on our fourth flight plan and waiting for our 9 PM flight. We luckily we did not have to change flights again, but our flight was delayed by a couple of hours. We were suppose to be home Sunday at 1 PM, after all the changes in flight plans and actual delays we finally made it home on Tuesday morning around 1 AM. Only 36 hours late. It only took me a week to recover and follow up with this post.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Transformers

Just recently I went to see the new Transformers movie. To be honest when I was younger, I never really watched the cartoon, or got into the action figures. I can imagine a certain friend saying that this is un-American. But anyway, the movie felt like a 2 hour commercial for GM cars. Did anyone else feel this way?

Luckily this did not take away from my enjoyment of the movie.

I’m a tool for education purposes

As I was walking out of the movie theater this weekend, I happened to over hear a lady walking behind me. Apparently she saw my tattoo and pointed it out to her son. Saying something is the lines of “see that is the Dallas Cowboys star, you were named after them”

Since I just left the theater and I had more important matters like using the bathroom. I did not have a chance to ask what his name was. I would feel sorry for the kid if his first name was “Cowboys”.

How Much Fun is the Denver Airport

I just asked Shell what the subject for a blog posting should be. She responded with the above title, so there you go.

This all started with our return from our latest adventure to Colorado Springs for a Family Reunion. After arriving to the airport on Sunday, we checked in at the Untied counter for our boarding passes and trying to get through security after quite a wait (due to the weekend after the 4th). By the time we were able to accomplish these 2 tasks, we walking to our gate. When I noticed that our flight was “CANCELLED”.

So we proceeded to the customer service for rebooking. After waiting again, for some time, they were going to route us through Portland on another airline. Of course this did not work out, since they had troubles printing the tickets before the flight left. Of course we went through 1 manager, 3 employees, and 1 trainee. Ending up with no other flights available for this day, had to be the next day was the only option.

Well that brings me today as I sit in the airport with plenty of time to write this post. Again today we arrive at the airport with the plans to fly through Seattle to get home around 7 PM. Waiting for the plane we noticed that it was delayed by 20 minutes. No problem we would still have plenty of time for the next layover. As time past waiting for our flight, it was delayed and delayed. Eventually, we knew that would not be able to reach our connection in time.

So again, we proceeded back to customer service and ended up with our 4th flight plan in 2 days. This time a direct flight home at 9 PM, which is okay with me since we reduced our flying time by a couple of hours. But now we are waiting for a flight that has not even showed up on the departure screen.

So far we have walked through almost every shop in the terminal and still have 5 hours until our flight. I’m thinking on ridding the train around to waste some time before I go crazy.

Bringing me to my suggestions (aka the point of the story) for all my 3 readers, DO NOT FLY THROUGH DENVER. This is also the airport that caused a struggle to get home for Christmas last year. I had to be re-routed from Baltimore through Chicago, Seattle, and then drive from home.