"the mother ship"

just watching my favorite high school team try to compete on MNF and noticed during the mother ship's 5 hour pregame broadcast that not only is the show biased toward the more popular team but blatantly so.  Not only that but since this notoriously liberal (and i'm not a right wing conservative by any means) station kicked the MNF institution that is Hank Williams, Jr. to the curb for voicing his, albeit odd, thoughts on our President's golfing habits, i noticed that the NFL has switched over to a one sided introduction which is told by a huge jackass. 

now onto the team that i've followed for too many years....these dolphins recently changed owners and have fallen on what one would consider hard times.  i'm completely disappointed in this entire franchise.  i recently read an article stating that the owner has openly said that he's hoping the team loses to the point that they are in the position to get the first pick in the draft next year so that they're in a position to take a quarterback who all in the know think will become the next coming of jesus christ the football player.  this is despicable and my recent thoughts of abandoning this team have gained some momentum.  after 20 years it get really hard to continually watch a team that constantly self defeats itself..  i've not only lost faith in this team but, as evidenced above, i've lost faith in the nfl as a whole.  the entire league is being run by money hungy jackassess who have nothing in mind but making a buck.  it makes me sick to the point where i'm ready to abandon the only professional sport that i still have an inkling of interest in.  that interest is quickly fading...  

my poor jeep

i purchased my jeep wrangler last march after pining for a jeep for the past dozen years or so.  i was so happy to finally have my dream car that i was oblivious to any defects, until recently.  after a fairly dry summer this september has been a bit rainy, to say the least.  in fact it has been the 9th wettest september on record in the area.  while such a factoid would normally not matter to me at all, this particular year it stuck.  i began noticing drips and drops from both my drivers side and passenger side doors.  thinking nothing of it, i wiped it up and chalked it up to owing a car with a retractable soft top.  after what has seemed like 2 straight weeks of rain and a very odd odor in the car i was fed up.  i pulled the carpet out of the back seat during a rare few hours of dryness and found tons of mold.  apparently the leak was much worse than i suspected.  during the days that followed, rain still falling, i would periodically check on the car..each time i would find the same drips and drops on the doors, but knowing about the mold i felt underneath the backseats to find an inch and a half of standing water.  totally ticked off that the vehicle that i had dreamed of owning since i was a teenager was closing in on be classified as a lemon i began searching the internet for people with similar problems....what a bad idea that was.  apparently, had i possessed the foresight to think of 'googling' leaking softop on 2007 jeep wranger unlimited sahara i would have found a plethora of people who have had the exact same issue with zero, that's right zero, fixes.  maybe i was lazy in not reading 27 pages of posts on a Q&A forum, but after a dozen i got the gist.  so i tweet and FB the jeep sites a question regarding a possible fix and, while I got some sympathy from others users, nothing from jeep or chyrsler or the powers that be.  i hate to talk trash about jeep since i want their product to be superior, however my loyalty is quickly fading.  if anyone out there has any knowledge of how to fix this issue please comment and get in touch with me.  i'd hate to have to sell this car to another sucker during the next dry spell because, other than the leaks, poor gas mileage, broken door handle, and rattling undercarriage the car is tip top.....

killing time watching some foosball...

great day today.  work was very much bearable.  solved some problems, talked to some clients who's tone reassured my confidence, and made a colleague or two laugh.  good day.  football is now on.  two teams who I generally have a hard time watching, let alone rooting for, are making me chuckle a little bit.  like i said, great day today.  tomorrow brings a few problems, although i'm tryin' real hard to be optimistic about life and the potential problems that come along.  this is me doing exactly that.

hoping to get some mileage in tomorrow a.m.  we'll see how late i stay up watching these two gaggles try to play football.  over the past year and 8 months i've run nearly 900 miles.  my goal is to get to 1200 by february 2012.    that might be difficult but it sure is doable.  just need some outside support to take care of it.  as of today my total since february 2010 is 898 miles.  that gives me about four months to run 300 miles...which equates to about a 5k per day for the next 97 days.  putting that into perspective kinda hurts a little.  oh well, i'll give it my all.  goal has been to increase mileage by 25% over the first year where i hit 500 miles. should still be in reach.  i'll keep you posted.  let me know what you think....

optimism is overrated

and so in my eternal ignorance i decide that disowning the team that i've been loyal to for 20+ years is just not me.  i sucked it up, whipped out my discover card and headed to the local watering hole to watch my once beloved miami dolphins as they took the field of battle against the MIGHTY cleveland browns.  my thinking was that i would see a drastic turnaround in the play of this team....oh how i was mistaken.  to make it all the worse, i dragged my child and wife out to witness the debacle that is this team.  while my family was busy being supportive of the mediocre play by these buffoons, i on the other hand grew more enraged with every 22 oz. beverage that i consumed.  by the middle of the third i was convinced that the game was over even though the colossal dolphins were clinging to a 3 point lead.  three points!  playing the browns!  did i mention that the browns did not have their best player?  no?  well they did not.  in the end i sat in front of my computer watching as this game, like so many others, was handed over on a silver platter to the opposing team in the final minutes of the game.  this morning i was ready to come into this space and write a scathing post to all the pundits who gave up on my team.  i was ready to tell them that their analysis of the dolphins home woes was way off base that that they had just received an extremely difficult home draw for the first two weeks of the season.  having the brownies, even on the road, in week 3 would surely be a cupcake and a surefire "w" in the books.  all of that went by the wayside when the same man who publicly called out the entire team after last week's debacle committed an ignorant penalty in the final minute to allow the brownies to continue on their quest for the eventual game-clinching touchdown.  thank you jason taylor, you are truly a great leader and a humongous friggin' prick.  great work.  this week, try some team building.  your team will need it especially since a front office shake up is in order.  try dancing instead of calling out, and undermining the authority of, your coach the next time you feel like getting on your high horse.

i got beef....#1

i got beef with people who claim to want to help their community but suddenly turn away.
i got beef with people who are strapped for cash yet shop for groceries at semi-"gourmet" supermarkets.
i got beef with amy poehler.
i got beef with the nfl, the millionaires, the billionaires.

i work with folks who push their employees to give their time (albeit company time) helping the community; all the while those same people who push the volunteerism sit back and complain that their diamond shoes are too tight and their wallets are too small for their 'hundreds'.  these four people in particular make themselves scarce when it comes time to help those in need...they either have "appointments" or "have enough work to do at my own house".  hell, it looks good on paper to have the company give time, effort and labor to a certain cause as long as that time effort and labor is not that of those whose billing rate is above the rest of us. 

i've known people who, even during times when funds are tight, choose to shop for groceries at a semi-gourmet grocery store.  this makes me sick considering i know that the sole reason for their choice of shopping establishments is the perceived clientele at the semi-gourmet store.  

amy poehler....she reminds me of someone i just don't like very much at all.....too bad because i'm sure she's a fine actor/actress yet the sight of her face enrages me to the point where i see red.

the nfl...what can i say?  the folks running this show make me sick.  millionaires and billionaires fighting over billions of dollars all the while fighting over MY attention.  the whole show just makes me sick......so nfl -- screw you!....who am i kidding?  i'll see you tomorrow... and I'll completely waste my entire day watching games that don't mean squat to anyone but the owners and players who make a crap-load of cash for displaying and playing a game that we all see as a necessity.

frightening but funny

it's wednesday morning, 6:30am and i'm on my morning jog through the city.  for the first time in months i forgot to wear my ipod so i'm enjoying the sounds of early autumn until i get into mile 4 and the home stretch of my run.  i notice a woman of small stature in the middle of the street walking towards me waving two sticks in the air as if she were conducting an orchestra.  now, i live in a city where sights like this are not uncommon, however in my neighborhood they are a little more so.  in any event, as i approach this woman i notice she's wearing ER scrubs, all the while going to town with her maestro baton until i get about 10 feet from her where she suddenly looks me straight in the eye, breaks her baton and throws the pieces at my feet.  this woman then proceeds to pepper me with several high pitched, body jolting yelps followed by a profanity laced tirade featuring some of our favorite four letter words most of which began with the 6th letter of the alphabet.  at this point i realize that those were likely not the ER scrubs i originally thought but rather more likely the threads issued at the local psychiatric institution.  upon this realization i stop at the top of the hill i was climbing and turn around.  with this woman still showering me with her poetic rants about 80 yards away i throw my arms up as if to say, "i'm confused...why are you doing this?"  she in turn responds by turning around herself, bending over and screaming, "suck my @$$ mother f---er!".  i turned and jogged off....my house will be on the market by spring.