One Less Thing To Worry About

Well, at least I have Halloween taken care of for this year.  That’s a load off my mind.

Country Fried Football

Could someone tell me why football telecasts are turning into episodes of “Hee Haw”?  It all started innocently enough a few years back when “Monday Night Football” went with Hank Williams Jr.’s “Are You Ready For Some Football?”.  Catchy tune.  A nice little intro theme song for the big game.   No big deal.

This football season things are out of contol.  ESPN’s “College Gameday” has ditched their old instrumental theme song for a horrible mess called “Coming To Your City” by a group called Big & Rich and some dude named Cowboy Troy.  It’s terrible.  I understand that “Gameday” gets more popular every season, but with this theme song it seems to me like they’re trying to go big time with the show, and I don’t like it.

As much as I hate Big & Rich’s dreck, it’s nowhere near as bad as the halftime highlights MNF is showing each week to the tune of Tim McGraw’s “I Like It, I Love It”.  McGraw sings a custom version of the song each week to describe highlights from Sunday’s games, and the result is predictably horrible.  “Davis on the goal line.  Man, did he get stuck.  He ain’t goin’ nowhere, just like my pick-up truck.”  My lyrics, not McGraw’s, but his aren’t much better.

If this weren’t enough, at the end of the Carolina-State game on Saturday, the announcers told me to make sure I tuned in next week so I could hear Brooks and Dunn sing a rendition of one of their songs with the lyrics changed for the ACC.  Wow. 

The point here is really not to bash country music, though I’m obviously not an enormous fan.  I can get with mixing highlights with music, but when you take an existing song and change the words to describe the highlights, I think that’s stupid, country music or any kind of music.

But apparently the network execs have decided that all football fans are also into bad country music, so I suppose there’s nothing I can do but sit back and endure it. 

I suppose it won’t be all bad.  For instance, I can’t wait to watch NC State highlights next week and see what words Kix and Ronnie rhyme with “weak schedule” and “porous secondary”.  That should be great.

It Was A Good Day

I got a bunch of things done at work today much faster than I ever thought that I would.

I had a great run when I got home from work.

I bowled a 221 tonight, my first 200+ league game in 2 years of bowling, which contributed to my first ever 500 series in the league.  As a result, we won all of our games tonight.

I just finished watching the mind-blowing season premiere of “LOST“, and couldn’t be more excited about the new season.

There will be worse days ahead.  There will be better days ahead.  But sometimes you have to sit back and enjoy a day for what it was.

Today was one of those days.

Today was a good day. 

All that was missing was the Goodyear blimp. 

“The OC” Season 3: Early Impressions

Let’s share a real moment together, shall we?  Season 2 of “The OC “ sucked.  Big time.  Things got a little better over the last 4 or 5 episodes, but for the most part it was a severe drop-off from the amazing first season.  The good news is that two episodes of Season 3 are now in the books, and I think we’re finding some of that Season 1 magic again. 

Some things that I like..

• The new guy they have playing the “Dean of Discipline“ at Harbor.  Is this guy the prototype “80’s Movie White Guy Villain“ or what?  Although I’m disappointed in “The OC“ casting director for missing the perfect opportunity to put Billy Zabka back on the map, this guy will do.  While we’re on the topic, what the hell does a snotty rich kid school need a Dean of Discipline for anyway?  Does he make them drive the Lexus to school instead of the Mercedes if they wear their seersucker before Labor Day?
• Ryan is punching people at high society soirees again.  This can’t help but be good times.  If there was one thing Season 2 was missing, it was Ryan getting into fights with the Newport Beach elite.
• Jimmy Cooper is in trouble again.  I love that his character can’t stay away from trying to make the big deal.  I like this story arc.  I see him getting capped before the season is over. 

Some things I don’t like…

• I’m excusing this, becasue I liked the end result, but the first episode was scaring me because it showed classic tinges of Season 2’s penchant for rushing the hell out of a storyline.  I’m willing to look past it because the storyline they were rushing to end was the played-out “Trey is Ryan’s no-good brother who messes things up for everyone“ debacle.  This was getting so old.  I’m glad they moved past it.  Kudos for not killing off Trey.  Though the story line was tired, they can always bring him back for some goodies during sweeps.
• I’ll say this slowly.  Get. Kirsten. Out. Of. Rehab.  Now.  I know she’s at the creepy cottage with Jeri Ryan now, but this storyline has to go for two reasons.  One, they are breaking “90210“ Postulate 17, which states that no character will be in rehab for more than 2 episodes.  As my friend Jigga has stated before, though I’m paraphrasing, people “catch” and recover from alcoholism on these shows like most people catch and recover from colds.  Let’s get on with it already.  Two, the lack of Kirsten means that there will be less opening scenes with wacky hijinks in the kitchen in the morning before they play the theme song.  Give me some silly music and some good Seth over Jeri Ryan’s man-face any day.

See?  Three things I like and really only one and a half things I don’t like.  I like where this season is heading.  I’m excited to see what happens.

Keep Your Checks in Check

Dear Lady In Front of Me at the Grocery Store the Other Day,

I was able to overlook the 33 pieces of produce you purchased that had to be entered by hand into the register by the obviously new cashier.  I was also able to overlook your precious little girl who kept ramming her mini-shopping cart into my cart while your glassy eyes watched the produce amble down the conveyor belt.  This is a stretch for me, but I was even able to tolerate your petty argument with the cashier over your 15-cent coupon.  After all, I’d had my Red Bull that morning, so we were good.

Despite my tolerance for your other misdeeds in the grocery line, ma’am, I must draw the line at your use of your checkbook to complete the transaction. 

I can’t stand it when people pay for things with checks in a retail store.  It’s 2005, people.  There have been many wonderful advances in banking technology since the 1800s.  You should look into something like a credit card or debit card.  They are quite handy, and speed things up not only for you, but all of the people in line behind you.

Nothing kills the flow of a line like someone whipping out the checkbook.  The cashier has to check the address and write things on the check if they’re missing.  The person writing the check has to, well, write the check, which can take forever for you perfect handwriting types out there.  Don’t get me started on the people who then proceed to update their register when they’re done.  Ugh. 

How old school is this?  You might as well throw a chicken, two goats, and some turnips up on the counter so you can start bartering with the cashier for your wares.

If you want to use your checks to pay the cable bill or your mortgage or whatever, that’s fine by me.  Just don’t make me wait in line while Pa draws the horse and buggy up to the store as you scratch out a check for your purchase. 

Please, just leave the checkbook at home.

Love,
Jamie 

Are You There, Blizzog? It’s Me, Jamie.

You may or may not have noticed that I’m not blogging too much these days.  There are a couple reasons for that.  For starters, as I mentioned a couple months back, I’m still suffering from a bit of blog burnout.  It’s something I’m trying to make myself snap out of, but it’s hard.  Additionally, I’m working on a new project that is taking up the majority of my free time.  More on that later.

My blog burnout thing is bothering me, mostly because I don’t really think it’s burnout so much as it is me over-editing myself.  It’s not that I haven’t had anything to say recently, it’s just that I haven’t had anything good to say.  Well… at least I’ve thought I didn’t have anything good to say. 

And therein lies the problem.  I’ve always said the blizzog is for me and not for anyone else.  It’s supposed to be my little public scratch pad where I can share thoughts with no one in particular and not really care what anyone thinks.  I think I’ve started caring too much about whether a particular insight is funny or witty or, uh, insightful, and it kills me from writing anything before I even try to get the words out. 

So to that end, I’m going to try to work through this by just making myself post about stuff, even if it’s lame “this is what I had for lunch today” stuff, until I can find my mojo again.  Sorry you’ll have to suffer through this with me, but then again, like I said, this is more for me than for you anyway. 

Besides, the new TV season is upon us.  You should have plenty to distract you anyway.