Cheers

Netflix has a growing number of television series available to watch instantly which The Wife and I love.  We don't have rabbit ear antennas or cable service so we currently have about 12 different television seasons in our Instant Queue.

We're plowing our way through Battlestar Galactica which has been really good so far.  Some of the episodes have been duds, but overall the series is intriguing with good plot twists and story progression.  We just started into season 4 so I'm curious to see how it will all wrap up.

Another one we just started watching is Cheers which has quickly become one of my favorite shows.  The show debuted in 1982 which means I was 5 years old when it started.  I remember watching some episodes as I got older with my parents and finding aspects of the show funny but I don't think I would have described it as a favorite.

Having watched the first 8 or so episodes of the first season, I think I have to change my opinion though.  The show is smart, has a great ensemble cast of likable characters and most importantly, the humor still holds up after nearly 30 years.  I haven't seen it recently for comparison's sake, but I'm guessing Growing Pains and Blossom don't really hold up the same.  And of course, the theme song and intro are classic even though it gets stuck in my head way too easily.



Seriously folks, if you have the ability to stream shows from Netflix, give this show a try.

99 Problems

I was looking at the last minute items in the 99-Cent Store checkout line the other day when two items caught my eye.  The first was a pregnancy test and right next to it was a pack of condoms.  I should have taken a photo.  They were probably stocked next to one another because one would need the 99¢ pregnancy test after the 99¢ condoms fail you.  Great marketing, guys.

EERT

I signed up to be on my company's EERT - Employee Emergency Response Team.  It's entirely voluntary but I've always been something of a safety nerd.  Also, I think a part of it stems from my desire (yet utter failure) to be a police officer.

So anyway, I will get a nerdy safety vest and flashlight to keep at my desk.  Over the next several months, I will also be trained in CPR, evacuation procedures, first aid, disaster relief, hazard material spills and several other things.

The first session is on fire extinguisher use where the Fire Department will show up to supervise, and we will actually get to put out fires they set in the parking lot.  I've walked past dozens of fire extinguishers in my life and I think I know how they operate, but this will be my first chance to do it in a controlled environment.  Might as well learn in a safe environment rather than freak out and guess when there is an actual fire.  Anyway, I'm a dork so I am really looking forward to learning all of this stuff.

Research

Nothing annoys me more than flybys people that don't do their research.  I received an email recently about something called the Triangle of Life.  It is supposedly an effective way to save yourself during an earthquake whereby, instead of getting under a heavy object, you simply crouch next to it.  Huh?

I've lived in California for 32 years, experienced a number of earthquakes and have never heard of this.  So, since I access my email through the Internet, I opened up another browser window (whoa, multiple windows!) and Google'd that.  Lo and behold, one of the first matches that came up is a favorite website of mine called Snopes.  Snopes basically seeks to debunk or confirm a lot of those email forwards, and nonsensical information floating around the Internets.  The Snopes article basically says the Triangle of Life is a mixture of misinformation, and goes on to provide links to safety experts such as the Red Cross and FEMA.

All of my "research" took about 20 seconds and then I didn't have to forward an email full of misinformation on to my loved ones.  People out there, do your research.

Flyby

Know what I hate? (No you don't, so let me enlighten you.) I hate flybys. Namely, flybys in association to sporting events.  You know, like when those fighter jets fly over some event that you're at. Here's why I hate them.

No one remembers them. Have you ever seen a Dodger game and thought the highlight was when some F-18 flew over Chavez Ravine? "Hey man, that catch by Ethier in the outfield was pretty sweet." "Quiet, dude - I'm still full of civic pride from that flyby earlier."  They last mere seconds. Here, watch this video. How long did that flyby last?  10 seconds? You're lucky if you can whip your head around fast enough to catch 3 seconds at most sporting events.

It's also a waste of money and fuel in an already tight economy. This article on Yahoo! sports estimates that the flyby at Super Bowl XLV may have cost $450,000.  Oh yeah - and the fucking game was played in a dome stadium so NO ONE in attendance could see the jets fly over. The article goes on to assert that the Air Force paid for the flyby out of its own budget, uses the flight hours as training and is somehow a marketing tool.  The first two points are valid but the third is absurd. Right because, 3 seconds of a flyby is far more effective than athletes running around in Nike shoes for over an hour.

It's no surprise that nearly every NASCAR race features a flyby, so it can combine my least favorite sport with my least favorite "patriotic" activity.  If I was President, the first thing I would do is outlaw  flybys over sporting events.

I'm Chris and I need your vote. Thank you.

Take Out the Trash!

So we've had this highly annoying problem in our condo complex lately whereby someone leaves a bag of trash in the shared walkway area outside of our condo unit.  No one seems to know who the culprit is but my guess is that it's some snot-nosed kid whose single mother tells them to take the out the trash, they get about halfway to the dumpster and just leave it there.  My secondary guess is that single mother never walks to her car through this shared walkway area so she never sees the shit job her stupid kid is doing.

The incidents of trash being left there have been increasing so we finally started to do something about.  There was a receipt in the trash bag that was facing right side up and against the side of the bag, so we got a name of the culprit.  We also complained to neighbors so they've been on the lookout as well.

When we got the culprit's name, I decided to do a little bit of good old fashioned Google investigation.  Luckily, this person has a pretty unique name so it was easy to find some hits that unfortunately, led me nowhere.  Ah, but since everyone and their mother (including mine) is on Facebook, I decided to look them up there.  Bingo!  Not only does said person have a profile, but some aspects of it are public so I know where they go to work out (also confirming they live in the same city as me) but I also know which family member of theirs is ill.

The bummer is this person is a renter, not an owner, so the HOA has no record of which unit they live in.  But at least I know what they look like now and we have other neighbors on the lookout on our behalf.

But seriously folks, how hard is it to take out your trash?  Most of you that read this blog know that the dumpsters are a mere 20 feet walk further!  Ugh, so annoying.

(Also as a sidenote, make sure you check your own privacy settings on Facebook as it was way too easy to find said person.)

So Long, Princess

So there's this (annoying) girl at work with a license plate frame that refers to her being a princess.

Also at work, there is an entire small department made of women and they have a street sign in their area that says Princess Way.

Shouldn't anyone past the age of, say, 8 be a little bit too grown up to somewhat seriously refer to herself as a princess?