MightyB!

I read a headline on CNN.com that stated

“Devices exist to keep kids from dying in cars, but few are sold” So I clicked through to read the article. I figured it would be some revolutionary new car seat or a back seat completely made of air bags.

Here’s how it started off:

Your car has a sensor that tells you when you’ve left the headlights on or the keys in the ignition. It probably has another reminding you and your passengers to buckle your seat belts, and still another that sounds when the door is ajar. Some cars even to tell you when the tires need inflating.

But so far, there’s no standard equipment to tell you that you’ve left a child in the back seat of a hot car.

Now right at that moment, I had to sit back and just ask, “what the fuck”?? Shouldn’t this be common sense for any parent, and most non parents out there? What’s next, sensors to tell you when you’ve dropped your child form an unsafe height or one that alerts you when you inadvertently let them play in traffic?

Using an old “american cliche”, I can say “that when I was a kid”…we were allowed to run around the house with out everything coated in rubber. I had toys mostly made out of steal and other various metals…plastic was no where to be found. When I was a kid, the stairs were considered an obstacle course, not a falling hazard. You get the idea.

The “dumbing down” of society just drives me nuts sometimes. Basic common sense goes out the window and we humans are treated as nothing more than drones with sensors, warning systems, safety devices that generally over project the majority of us simply because someone out there messed it up for the rest of us.

Today I read an interesting article about a pharmacist in Denver that decided to close up shop after 44 years. He decided that prescription drugs weren’t his business anymore, and was instead going to open a Liquor store. And the reason for the change? It comes down to one thing, profit.

The pharmacist sold his prescription files and some of his store space to the Safeway next door. Then he opened Evergreen Discount Liquors, a huge 20,000-square- foot store with an impressive selection of competitively priced spirits, wines and beers.

He stated that the drug companies just have to much control on what he can sell prescriptions for as well as big box and chain pharmacies that are invading his territory. He said the turning point was when he had to fill prescriptions for his wife, and the insurance company repeatedly wanted him to use a cheaper, more efficient mail order pharmacy to fill it, rather than his own store.

All of this just got me thinking about the “mom and pop” shops of the world and the “one on one” service that goes hand in hand with them. Whether still knowing the local pharmacist on a first name basis, or going to a family mechanic, or meeting at your neighborhood deli, the world is a changing place. Places like Wal*Mart and Target have taken the country by storm and seem to think that bigger is better, period. That’s not always the case though, and I’m of the opinion that sometimes a little better personal customer service is worth the few extra bucks over convenience.

Independent family pharmacies have been dwindling since the era of managed health care which began almost twenty years ago. And the pharmacy is just one example of all those “mom and pop” shops that are dwindling. And if you look at new cities and towns that are growing at record paces, it’s all box stores going in.

Here in my neighborhood, they are few and far in between, but we do make an effort to hunt them out. We visit the local pizza joint at least once a week and try to buy as much farm fresh fruit and vegatables from local growers every weekend that we can. They are still out there, you just have to spend a little time hunting them down and making the effort to actually get there.

Anyway, back to the pharmacists. He says quote,

It’s a lot more enjoyable to sell the liquor. The people come in, they’re not sick, and they don’t question the prices as much. People feel better when they drink too and in the end, they are all drugs.

Does he have a point? At least he stayed in the “mom and pop” business, and hopefully you can too!

Procrastinating at the day job today I was perusing the vast interwebs and stumbled upon a recent study that says the “average worker” wastes 90 minutes a day to “personal web use”, which adds up to 43 days a year! If you figure that you work about 250 days a year, that’s almost 20% that you are doing “other” things rather than what your employer would consider work.

The website breaks it down saying that about 30 minutes is spent shopping for food, clothes and vacations. 18 minutes is spent on instant messaging and networking websites take up about 14 minutes. Employees spend about 6 minutes job hunting and another 6 minutes paying the bills….

All this got me to thinking though, what did the people before my generation do to “kill time” at work. I began my career in an office in 1997 and since day one, I’ve had email, Instant messaging and the internet. Just trying to take a step back, I really don’t think that I could go through a full day at work without being connected to the outside world. Maybe if I worked in customer service, or in a factory where i was constantly busy I may be able to do it, but in an office, there is no way.

First, I figured I would have to take up smoking. That would easily kill about 5 minutes an hour, so there is 40 minutes right there. For some reason smokers in the work place get provided this unwritten luxury of needing to escape to get there nicotine fix. I don’t know what it is like where you work, but in my office, there seems to be a constant hourly parade of people sneaking out the back door, standing there mandatory 20 feet away from the building sucking down their butts. And nothing stops them. Whether it is 110 here in Phoenix, or 5 below with blizzard conditions back home, these people just never say, “nah, not this time”.

The second thing I figured I could do is go back to utilizing that other unwritten perk of the workplace, unlimited long distance. Although the phone at work doesn’t seem to get as much use for personal calls as it once did, thanks in part to the internet, there is nothing like catching up with friends afar on the companies dime. I figure about 30 minutes a day is just to enough to fly under the radar where they don’t think I’ve permanently moved to full time phone support or something.

Bam, now I’m up to 70 on cigarrettes and the phone. I just need to find another 20 and I’m good to go on a daily basis. Depending on my mood and what I had for dinner, we could probably count on a good 5 in the bathroom, so I’m left with just the 15… I guess I can use that for the “water cooler” talk that seemed to die out when the internet arrived. At my work, we have two water coolers and there hasn’t been anything more going on other than a “how’s it going” in the 9 months I’ve been there.

So, there you have it. I’ve managed to still find a way to kill 90 minutes a day without touching the web….Odds are though, I still couldn’t do it!

I’ve got it on really good word that Jason’s One Man’s Opinion is all about the rise of postage this week and since I use about 5 stamps a year, I’m going to leave it all up to him.

Instead, let’s talk about gas prices here in the USA. It seems to be a news story every other day on how the prices are continually going up. Here in Phoenix the price of regular is right at the country average, which is $3.15 a gallon. Well, actually, $3.15 9/10…. Can’t we all just give in and give up that freak’n 1/10 already?

Anyway, if you compare that to other countries in the world, we are somewhat better off, and somewhat NOT. Thanks to my fine friends at Google, it appears that the gas prices average the following for the following countries:

(All have been converted to US dollars per Gallon for comparison sake)

• Reading, UK 5.56
• Hong Kong 5.62
• Rome, Italy 4.86
• Seoul, Korea 4.71
• Sydney, Australia 2.63
• Shangai, China 1.48
• Caracas, Venezuela .14

Now, are you still with me? Good. Going through that quick list, you can see that gas prices are all over the place in the world….depending on so many factors. Who owns the oil, number of refineries you have in your country, what type of government you have, etc, etc.

So, here in the United States, how much is too much? Well, the answer really goes back to what I learned in economics and the fundemental logic of supply and demand.

Gas prices are currently at an all time high.
Our consumption of gas is also at an all time high.
It’s definitely not dropping anytime soon.

Anyone remember that Seinfield episode where Kramer and Newman had an elaborate plan to drive to another state where they could get more money for their recycled cans??

Well, anyone have any idea on how to import gas from Venezuela?

May brings many of things to the world.

We get everything from summer blockbuster movies to TV finales.
It seems as if I was the only one not to go see Spiderman 3 this past weekend, so I really don’t have much to say at this point, except the film made over $150 million in it’s opening 3 day weekend….That’s simply amazing. I hope to get out and see it this week!

Next up are the TV finales that are supposed to leave with that that stuffed feeling that will hold you over for the summer hiatuses. The three shows that I’m looking forward to most is Lost, Heroes and the end of the Sopranos. Lost is FINALLY back to where it was at the end of season 1 and the beginning of season 2. I think we may finally what the heck this island is really all about!

Heroes is one of those shows that I just didn’t get into when it began back in the fall. There is only so much TV watching to get done and unfortunately it didn’t make the cut. Man, was I ever wrong. I was able to catch up on like 12 or so episodes during it’s winter break and finally got to experience all the hype first hand. It is a really well written show and the mysteries will keep you glued to each new episode. We know how the season will end, but the anticipation to see how it actually all unfolds is second to none.

Finally, we have the TV juggernaut that is The Sopranos. It seems as if the series has been on forever, but that is only because HBO takes so damn log between seasons. That’s OK, I feel like the Sopranos has been one of those shows that have really defined me as a fan of Television. I doubt there can ever be a mob drama on TV ever again, and I hope that no one even tries. We have four episodes left and the only thing I ask for is that we have some sort of closure on the Tony and crew’s ongoing struggles. It looks like things with Tony, Pauley, Phil, Christopher and AJ are really ramping up for a bang. I hope we have one of those “who shot JR” moments for years to come.

Now the bad news….With the television season ending, it means we get bombarded with awful summer schedules usually saturated with reality shows. I think I actually miss the good ole days of summer repeats. It would give you a chance to watch the shows that you didn’t have time for during the regular television year.!

That’s OK though. Next week in the television industry we have something called the “upfronts” where the networks reveal their fall schedules and reveal what shows stay, and what new shows they have in the pipeline and the cycle starts all over again. So no more TV talk until then!

This time of year is usually a pretty dull one on the sports calendar. The NFL is over, baseball is stuck in eternal spring training, the NBA is in that lull before the playoffs begin and except for our Canadian friends, no one cares about the NHL anymore.

So this leaves us very limited in searching for satisfaction of our competitive juices. The way I see it today, we have two options: The NCAA basketball tournament and American Idol.

Now, I’m not going to declare here which is my favorite, but let’s just say mine does not include a guy named Seacrest.

Both events are ratings juggernauts on TV. The tournament is CBS sport’s bread and butter every year and they have owned the rights for what seems like forever. They have wall to wall coverage on the tube each week of all the games, as well as complete and insane coverage on the web, including live video now of every game as it happens!

As for Idol, it seems that nowadays, it is single handily responsible for Fox’s success as a network. In its sixth year, it is bigger now than ever and shows no signs of slowing down. It also has it’s own web empire and premiere sponsors from Coke to Ford hawking it’s wares in every possible corner it can. Can you believe that past Idol winners have actually won Grammies? Either the music industry totally sucks now, or these winners actually do have some sort of talent. I’ll let you decide that one.

Both events offer favorites and underdogs. Whether it is rooting for that 16th seed to upset a #1 for the very first time, or for one of the Idols to break down and verbally assault Simon Cowell on live TV, there is definitely someone that you can latch onto and give your support to as they try to rise to the top.

So choose one and try to hang on until something better comes along!

What is the bigger loss?

The loss of a soldier in Iraq or the loss of Anna Nicole Smith?

The answer of course, they are both equal. The loss of any human life is a sad thing, and all outside politics put aside, should hurt the same.

if this is the case, why does the media seem to focus so much on the passing of Anna Nicole Smith rather than the continued loss of life in Iraq? It’s easy. Sex, lies and money just make for great stories!

This isn’t going to be a rant on the war, or a rant on Anna Nicole for that matter.

I just wanted to prove the point that the media today is something that really shapes popular opinion out there, and essentially tries to deem what is newsworthy and what is not. And in doing so, they continually try to put down each other. Fox news continually puts down CNN. CNN continually does the same for Fox news…Both while trying to get the latest and greatest coverage and opinion on what is the most topical event of moment.

How and where do you like to get your news? On my end, I like to get things in quick burst. Mostly through the net, just skimming through headlines, until I find one that interests me, then I’ll dig deeper to read and learn more. Ironically enough, with all the TV watching I do, I probably get the least amount of my news from the tube. Usually when I go to bed, I like watching a quick 10-15 minutes of the local news to see what’s going on in my neck of the woods, but that is about it. The only time I actually watch CNN or FOX news is when there is major breaking news and they are carrying a live feed.

What do you think?? Where do you get most of your news, and does it bother you how much media has control over people’s opinions now?

Speaking of TV, here’s a random thought for this week. If the war on terror ended today, and there was no more need for CTU on 24, wouldn’t they make a great call center. Just think, you have trouble with your cable, or DSL, you could call them, and they could re route the routers or interlace the filters and have your problem solved in under a minute! Now that’s my idea of a perfect world!

Hey everyone, this is Brian and I AM NOT running for President.

Yup, you’ve heard that right! I’m not forming an exploratory committee, I’m not raising any money and I will not be the next President of the United States.

I figured at this point, it just may be easier for us to declare who is NOT running for President, rather than try to decipher who is in and what they currently believe in.
Is it like this a year and a half before every presidential election? I feel that because our current President has such a low approval rating, that at this point, everyone has a shot…so why not give it a try, right? Well, again, for the record, I’m sitting on the sidelines for this one.

Seriously though, would you still be allowed to go to work every day, if on your last review you only scored in the 30’s?? I think in the real world to get a 30% review you basically have to have the ability to show up to work, turn a computer on and answer a phone. I know! I see people like this all the time that still have gainful employment!

It just depends on who really makes up that 30%. Doesn’t matter how low that number goes, as long as those people represent the majority of individuals that benefit the most from the current administration…This is like the 80/20 rule on steroids….

Ah, can you tell it is tax season and one certain mighty individual got stuck paying more taxes that the previous year despite finding enough deductions to get my adjusted gross income below last year’s!!! Not to mention the lovely system we have where we have to withhold this potential tax interest free for the government until we can go through a whole process just to get a sum of that money back…

Or Maybe it is a new proposed $2.9 trillion budget for our country next year in which our Prez wants to increase military spending and squeeze all other spending so we can eliminate a deficit, that he created, in five years….

I guess this is what would happen if you gave a 1st grader a checking account….

As I sit here and check my calendar, I see that it is the middle of January and that only means one thing! NFL PLAYOFFS!!! And of course, what are the NFL PLAYOFFS without the NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS! The Patriots pulled off a sweet win in San Diego this past weekend simply because the Chargers never put them away when they had the chance.

That’s right, give Brady and the Pats any shimmer of hope, they WILL take advantage. That’s the difference between a perennial playoff team, and everyone else!

Now we get ready for another playoff match-up between Manning and Brady. The winner goes to the SuperBowl.

It was kind of interesting to see how this season unfolded. The Pats weren’t really regarded as one of those power house teams through the regular season. In the AFC, it was really the Colts, Ravens and Chargers that were in the spotlight.
And since this was my first football season living outside of New England, I really did gain that “national perspective” of how certain teams are perceived across the league. When I did live in New England, you were just overwhelmed with all things Patriots and Red Sox. It was as if no other sport franchises existed, and if they did, they were far inferior to our beloved home town teams.

So now I can say first hand, as a geographic outsider to my home town team, they have not had the respects of past years.

That’s ok though, with Belichik, Brady and the whole rest of the crew, we know we are in for another great game this weekend against the Colts.

Personally, I won’t be able to watch the game….I’m going home for a long weekend, so I’ll be there for the hype, but leave just a couple of hours before kick-off on Sunday night. I’m hoping that I can shelter myself from a score on the plane, as well as my ride from the airport back home so I can watch it in all it’s TiVo glory….

Hey, and if you could care less about all this football talk, you are in luck, American Idol is back this week…have fun!

I’m sitting here enjoying a very lazy New Years day. I’ve been watching some football, I watched the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and I’m getting caught up on that NBC show Hero’s, which so far, I really like.

As I woke up this past Saturday morning, I found that it was a very interesting news day. I was flipping around the channels and settled on CNN to see what was going on in the world and the news of the hour was the hanging of Saddam Hussein.

That was quickly followed by a brief live segment of President Gerald Ford’s body being transported to an airport in Palm Springs and loaded onto Air Force One for a trip to DC.

After that, CNN had complete, and apparently non stop coverage of the James Brown memorial from Augusta Georgia. It was essentially about a 90 minutes concert featuring all kinds of great soul musicians. After watching the musical part, and seeing that Al Sharpton was the next person to actually speak, I decided to move on with my life.

But, I thought it was kind of interesting that in about 2 hours of TV watching, it consisted of 10 minutes of the Sadam hanging, 20 minutes of the Ford flight and 90 minutes of James Brown….What a way to end the year I thought!!

Was it just me, or did the Saddam hanging just kind of get swept under the mat since it happened at the beginning of a long three day weekend. I guess it is a really tough topic to get involved in, especially as an American. I thought there would be more fall out from the anti capital punishment folks in the very least, but it didn’t really seem that it had much traction in that arena either.

What are you thoughts?

Something that has caught my attention the past week is of all things, the NASA channel. I’m not sure if you get this in your area with your cable or satellite provider, but let me tell you something. When there is a shuttle in the sky, there is nothing more fascinating on TV…especially summertime TV!

Normally the channel shows educational shows related to the space program, but quite bluntly, they look like they were produced in someone’s basement on the weekend …Frankly, they are boring as hell. Once in a great while you may find something worth watching, but not often. I actually never even go to the channel unless a shuttle has launched.

But, when that shuttle does go up, which has been far and few in between the past few years, to me, it is some of the greatest TV to be had. It’s like watching the best educational documentary you have ever seen…Except it’s in real time, live, just a few hundred miles above us in space!

Ever since I was a kid I was in awe about space and what the channel shows during a live space mission just feeds into that little kid who wants to know everything there is beyond our little planet earth. And when you really stop to think about it, it’s been less than 50 years since the first astronaut went up. For me, that was only in my parents lifetime….so it’s really not that long ago!

I guess at some point it was fascination to watch something on TV where it was “live via satellite” from the other side of the world. Which in today’s age just doesn’t seem like that big of a deal anymore….but for me, it just brings it to a whole other level when it is “live via satellite, from out space”….and you see a couple of people floating around in space, just specks of dust against the black backdrop of space…

The past week I’ve been engrossed in home improvement and the world cup, enjoyed my birthday and celebrated my first Father’s Day. But it’s time to put all that on hold and talk about the “American Cliche”.

For many people now, the term “American Cliche” is more than a phrase describing a typical American’s view on topics, but the title of a weekly internet show where Scott takes you into the world as we know it from his point of view. If you type “American Cliche” into google, the number one hit is the show. Heck, the show even has it’s own wiki page now!!! I found that by accident a few weeks ago as I was trying to find a good definition of what exactly an “American Cliche” is…or probably was…

Hey, that reminds me Scott, where’s the old school intro where you go into your definition of an American Cliche. You know the one…

“I’m always amazed by some of the things you stumble across on the internet, read about in the newspaper or see on TV. The Bizarre news stories from around the world….can it really be that truth is stranger than fiction, or is that, just an American Cliche”. (cue badass guitar riff)

There’s something about that that just got me going on Wednesday mornings as I listened to the show…

Let’s whip that thing out for old times sake….It kind of reminded me like the old A-Team intro…”If you have a problem, if no one can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire, the A-Team”! It was just so bad ass…

Over the past 50 shows i think we are finally starting to understand what side of Bush’s approval rating Scott might be on, we had a jump start in learning what HBO’s next “big hit” might be with “Big Love”, we’ve battled a few cold’s and even said good bye to an old friend together, 8BallRadio.

Despite all that , I still have no clue how to use my keyboard to get that damn little accent on the last E on the word Cliche….I’ve googled it, i’ve tried doing the research, but there is just something about configuring my international keyboard that has just stumped me. And that usually doesn’t happen that often!
Maybe that will be one of MY goals for the next 50 shows…

Either way, I’ll continue to try and deliver my minutes each week, as you continue to know Scott in the next 50 shows

Just so you know, the first 50 shows is pretty dead on as to who Scott is, as I’ve experience first hand over the past 12 years….Now that’s a lot of the Cliche!!! clicheee, clicheeeee….oh, I give up!!!

So good luck on the next 50 Scott!!!

April is just a few days away and around these parts, it only means one thing!

No, I’m not talking about the NCAA Final four taking place this weekend in Indianapolis.

And no, I’m not talking about the Cherry Blossom trees that were a gift from Tokyo, Japan in 1912 blossoming in Washington DC. (talk about an on again, off again, on again relationship over the last century!)

Nor am I talking about the first site of the Tulips coming through the ground from the bulbs you planted last fall…(this one actually is true at out house!)

Nope, my mind is squarely focused on one thing as April approaches, and that one thing is the Boston Red Sox.

Now, whether you are a Red Sox fan, or even a baseball fan for that matter, there is something special about kicking off another season here in Red Sox Nation. People seem to smile a bit more, be generally in a better mood and unite with a common thread no matter what other differences they may have in life.

There is always hope, hope that this will be the year…as it was in 2004. (Funny thing about that year, a few times driving to work early in the season I saw a NH vanity plate with “SOXIN04”…”wow”, I thought, “enjoy it for the summer, but you’ll probably need a new one next year”…and then as that season progressed and the Sox won it all, I always remembered that plate…He called it alright and now it is frozen in time…) We always think this is the year, then by fall conclude with, “there is always next year”

The passion this area feels for their baseball team is amazing…We thoroughly enjoy every win while agonizing and second guessing every loss…

So yeah, April is here, but really, the Red Sox are almost here! I go to my first game in just a couple of weeks on Marathon Monday…another one of those rites of spring!

Whenever I need something to complain about, I reach back into my archives and bring out the old shaving argument. Nothing seems more like a waste of time in my book than shaving your face on a daily basis. Personally I try to do it three times a week if I feel I can get away
with it at work. Also, I’ve had sideburns now for over 10 years not because of their stylish good looks, but because it cuts down on the surface area that needs to be shaved!

Whatever happened to the full beard and it’s acceptance in everyday life? When man first invented the razor and shaved with it, what was it that he was really trying to accomplish?? In the end, they created a daily nuance and a multi billion dollar industry to boot.

Gillette now has a 5 blade razor….Four blades on the face and one on the top for those quote, “tough to reach places”. Also, it comes with a battery powered model that takes it up a notch I guess with vibration…simply amazing….
I’m still happy with my Mach 3 for the time being. But it got me thinking back to 20 years ago and what the choices for shaving then were. Either old school with a straight razor, or a disposable I guess. I don’t know about you, but if you ever want to appreciate the Mach 3 a little more, give a bic disposable a try with a few days growth…i think tweezers would be more effective at that point!

Why doesn’t “natural selection” work for facial hair??? If we have been shaving it for so long now, don’t you think a chromosome would kick in and just call it quits?? It worked for tails and opposable thumbs didn’t it??

This past Sunday was the Academy Awards which marked the end of another awards season.

The Oscars are the Crème de la Crème of award shows every year, where all of Hollywood dresses up to the nines and pats themselves on the back for another year well done.

But, are the majority of movie goers really appreciative of the films being honored at the Oscars? In the era where A-List movie stars are getting paid between 20-30 Million dollars a film, the majority of movie goers are watching the “Hollywood Blockbuster”, which is ridden with big names and big budgets. Also, these are the movies that Hollywood tends to pound in our brains with their massive advertising campaigns, yet rarely show up at the Academy Awards.

The special Oscar worthy films, directors and actors are usually presented to the public right before awards season and then specifically pitched and sold by the movie studios to the voting members of the Academy. aka., not the majority of moviegoers.

So when Oscar night actually arrives, the general movie going public has not seen a majority of the nominees, but only watches it for the STAR FACTOR. Do you see this endless loop?

Hollywood keeps making one set of movies for the general public and one set of films for the industry, their academy, and a handful of true fans of film to enjoy!

This frustrates the hell out of me for some reason. Maybe I’m a bit jealous and envious of that highly regarded group, or maybe I would like for Hollywood to spread the wealth a little more and get these great Oscar winning films, directors and actors to the mainstream!