So on Thursday at work we were asked to wear a sticker to support the efforts of the Union and our contract negotiations. The sticker read:
Great Teachers + Fair Funding = Student Success
While I can't argue with the logic of the formula, I can argue with the logic of the effectiveness of wearing a sticker at school. The only people who are going to see it in school are the students, and I don't think they have much control over the funding in the district. I got the sticker and didn't wear it and explained the above logic to a teacher who told me, "that's the point. We are showing the students that we are trying to increase their success but are unable to because of the lack of fair funding." Really, do you think the students are picking up on that? I went the whole day without wearing the sticker.
So I was just at a meeting for about 3 hours nad I found out what is more annoying than someone leaving their phone on, someone who has their phone on vibrate and it goes off every 10 minutes for 3 hours straight. At this meeting we were first reminded to please turn off your phone and everyone checks (shouldn't your phone be off most times anyways?). Then throughout the meeting this same guy has his phone go off constantly every 10 minutes for the whole 3 hours. He never just turns it off (technically turning it to vibrate is not turning it off), nor does he check his phone to see if it is any kind of an emergency. On his phone, and with many people's phones, the vibrate is actually louder than a ringing. I literally almost jumped out of my seat, went to his spot, grabbed his phone, and smashed it against the wall. However, unlike George Costanzo who decides to do the opposite of everything and goes off on the guy in the movie theater, I did nothing.
So I thought yesterday's post about President Obama not receiving an honorary degree at ASU was enough. Wrong. It turns out that over the weekend there was more controversy when he spoke at Notre Dame.
What's the big deal here people? I think it really comes down to the fact that most people should keep their opinions and views to themselves and their blogs.
So Obama is pro-choice, okay? So you don't want him to receive an honorary degree? You mean to tell me that everyone that graduates from Notre Dame has to be pro-life. I can see it now, a guy gets enough credits to graduate, and then the last question on the last exam in his last class is "Are you pro-choice."
Who cares. If you don't like what he has to say, don't go to his speech. There were people yelling at him while he was trying to give his speech and their were a lot of people outside protesting. Some people want to celebrate and enjoy themselves on this graduation day, a day they have been working 22 years toward.
This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode in which Elaine falls in love with this guy who she thinks is the best. She is telling Jerry how great this guy is, and then he asks what this guy's stance is on abortion. Elaine is worried and ends up asking him, and their relationship falls apart. Keep your opinions to yourself.
It turns out Seinfeld was right all those years ago. India really is a dreadful, dreadful place. It turns out that the actors in Slumdog Millionaire really do live in the slums. And instead of them getting money and becoming stars after starring in an Academy-award winning film, it appears they still live in poverty in India, getting their ass kicked by their parents.
Friday night, went to wedding to once again see that love is not real. We got 11 inches of snow that day and I couldn't even drive on my street. I had to park at a hotel that I wasn't staying at and get a cab home at night, and then a cab to my car in the morning.
On Saturday night I decided to stay out of town at my parents because they have a garage and my street was still s**t.
Come Sunday Morning the windchill was minus 25 degrees! My car wouldn't start. We tried everything. We jumped it, tried cranking the engine, tried warming it up with space heaters. NOthing would work. I decided to wait til Tuesday when it was suppossed to warm up to a balmy 24 degrees.
On SUnday night I officially won my Fantasy Football league somehow by 6 points. I'm waiting for the comissioner to put in his codes so he wins............
I spent the day Sunday and Monday at my parents because my car wouldn't start. Oh-well. On Monday me and my dad were sitting around and the house began to get smoky. There was an electrical fire in the crawl space above the ceiling in his front office. The fire department came, no flame, but they had to rip a hole in the ceiling of the office. THe whole ceiling came down. Some stuff (computer, desk) will have to be replace, while some made it through (bookcase, chair). ALl in all it could have been worse. Someone is coming in on Monday to put the ceiling back together and what not, until then the room is condemned. (Literally the housing authoirty came and closed off the room). The funniest thing is that 2 local news came becuase the fire department came out and they must listen to the airwaves. They asked my dad for a statement, but he said it wasn't a story and it was ridiculous that they were covering this when there were major accidents and murders happening in Milwaukee.
Today (Tuesday) I went to start my car when it was "warmer" and it still wouldn't start, so I took it in. (I have free towing with my cell phone). Yada yada yada, it has something to do with coordided spark plugs and stuff. $500 later it should be fixed in about 3 hours. (I'm at the dealership now).
So I am going to be off the airwaves until Friday, I will have no access to the Internets over the holidays do to the computer room being "condemned." (I'll make up with it over the next week.)
By this time I am sure all my loyal readers have seen both of these stories, but they really make you wonder what the world is coming to.
I think Austin Powers put it best:
Really, who throws a shoe? (It is pretty funny though) Since national security usually takes things to the extreme, I won't be surprised if soon enough, Secret Service makes everyone remove their shoes at Presidential Press Conferences.
You may have also heard about some 9 year old kid who wrote a book about picking up chicks. Seriously? That's either the stupidest thing and biggest waste of paper I have ever heard of, or the book is actually good and in that case maybe I should read it. Everything I learned about picking up chicks I learned from Lloyd Christmas and George Costanza:
Now we have this article that Favre is just going to show up to minicamp and call the Packers' "bluff." We'll see if this strategy works, it seems oddly familiar to the strategy taken by George Costanza on Seinfeld when he quits his job and then regrets it and decides to just show up for work on Monday.
At this point I am wondering if the Packers are the real bad guy. Favre just wants to play football (his first choice would be the Packers he has said), and the Packers have said they are not interested, but won't let him play for someone else. It's like you quit your job, then want to come back, but they also won't let you go work anywhere else either. I was always taught you can't have your cake and eat it too.
Some athletes are such complete a**-holes it never fails to surprise me. Manny Ramirez is one such athlete. Now he has apparaetnly gotten into a physical confrontation with the traveling secretary over some tickets to a game. What would possess a normal, sane human being from doing such a thing?
Traveling secretary? I always thought they made up George Costanza's position, assistant to the traveling secretary, on Seinfeld. If he hadn't not been traded for a bucket of chicken to Tyler Chicken on the show, maybe someday he could have worked his way up to the traveling secretary and could have got into a physical confrontation with Gary Sheffield or someone. Too bad
I'm just sitting here getting some work accomplished and watching the always hilarious Seinfeld. The episode is "The Pilot" and is the episode where they start shooting the Pilot of the show they are writing. The sub plot is the where George is going to a therapist and is worried about the show becoming successfully. (Great cameo of Jeremy Piven as George on the show they are writing.)
Money quote:
George: "God would never let me be happy. He would kill me first." Therapist: "I thought you didn't believe in God?" George: "I do for the bad things."
Those TV buffs out there in the Blog-o-sphere may ahve notice that TBS has changed their evening lineup. They used to play Seinfeld from 5-6, but now air Seinfeld from 4-5. You used to get home from work (those of us who work) and put your feet up and watch 1 hour of the funniest television program ever aired. But now, 4 o'clock? Who's at home at 4 o'clock? TBS is also now airing 3 episodes of Everyone Love's Raymond from 5:30-7 PM. Everybody Loves Raymond? That is by far the most over-rated show ever aired. Even people who watched it will tell you that it is terrible. Why 3 episodes a day? Now I have nothing to watch when I get home from 5-6. I guess I'm just going to have to go on a crime spree everyday from 5-6. Don't blame me, blame TBS. They moved Seinfeld to a terrible time slot. Where I am going to get my daily dose of dry humor?
Everyone please e-mail TBS at tbsinfo@turner.com and demand them to change Seinfeld back to 5-6. Otherwise they are going to have a lot of guilt on there hands with rising crime rates.
Most movies that come out are not original at all, just the same formula repeated with different characters. I went and saw Ratatouille the other night (so-so as far as talking animal movies go). Before the movie was a trailer for a new Jerry Seinfeld movie, Bee Movie. He has been working on this movie for almost a year and is now being released in November. The movie is an animated talking-animal movie centered around a young bee. The humor is very "Seinfeld-esque" and I think the movie will be quite funny. The progression of the film is even funnier. Watch these three trailers in order. The first came out about 6-7 months ago, the second one about 2-3 months ago, and the last one came out recently.
I'm going to see the movie, and will enjoy it. Just seeing Seinfeld doing things again is a good thing. I've heard that NBC has a standing offer to him to have an hour-long Seinfeld reunion episode if he ever decides to do it.
My rant here is that I personally think that this movie would be funnier if stayed live action. If it were a movie about them trying to make a movie with actors playing talking animals, and all the hilarity that ensues. It would be a stupid kind of humor, but has never been done and I think it would be hilarious.
I was just sitting around this Memorial Day watching a hand-picked Scrubs marathon with my DVDs and was wondering to myself about the state of sitcoms on television. These days networks are giving up on sitcoms and switching over to high-concept hour long dramas. I believe that witty sitcoms have become to difficult to write and studios are taking the easy way out by creating high-concept dramas that are awful. So many of these dramas last a year or less and go by the wayside.
Looking at the proposed fall schedule for the networks breaks down like this: NBC has 4 sitcoms, ABC has 2 (one is the terrible Geico cavemen), CBS has 4, Fox has 6 (4 are animated), and the CW has 2. Every year 5 shows are nominated for best comedy. That means 1/3 of these shows will be nominated. The rest of the channels' lineup is filled with terrible dramas. Here's a run down of some of the dramas they tried out last year, some of them are sadly still on, but most were canceled.
A show about a guy who keeps repeating the same day until he corrected some mistake he made (the show never finished so viewers never learned what this was all about)
A show about a town after a nuclear explosion
A show about a detective who sees dead people who try to help him solve crimes
A incredibly racist show about the Irish mob
A show about survivors of a bank robbery and hostage situation
A show about people "forced" into this country wide race for some unknown prize
Whatever happened to the simple comedy. One where we can sit down for 30 minutes and laugh and not have to wonder what the hell is going on and have to wait week after week for answers. I found this clip of a Scrubs musical that show the simplicity of a simple comedy, just jokes.
Its so sad. Growing up every night every channel had 2 hours of sitcoms, and then just one drama from 9-10 (for your parents). The only way to watch quality sitcoms is on TBS, Comedy Central, or your local syndicated channels form 5-7 pm. I believe the fall started after Einfeld and Friends and no one was able to write simple sitcoms that could be viewed by all and respected in many different ways. Seinfeld is simple, and simple people can laugh at it. Seinfeld is also sophisticated and smart, adn sophistyicated and smart people can watch it. The final death blow to sitcoms was when Fox canceled Arrested Development for War at Home. Arrested Development was by far the funniest and smartest sitcom since Seinfeld, but some many people "didn't get it." To quote Elaine from Seinfeld, "Smart people get it Jerry." (when talking about her political cartoon for the New Yorker). Week after week Arrested Development made off the cuff and very dry jokes, but they didn't pause and wait for the audience to catch them, they kept on going. War at Home is the exact opposite. They race through episodes and when they think something funny is happening or being said they pause and make sure everyone at home got it.
Sometimes I just want to escape for a half hour and laugh, not think. I spend most of everyday sitting around thinking, trying to "figure things out," its nice to be able to turn that off every once in a while. The way studios are programming television now, any year now there will be no more sitcoms. Just high-concept dramas that make no sense and ridiculous reality shows that no one with half a brain would watch.
