Stick Our Resolutions Together

For the first time that I can remember, I actually accomplished one of my New Years' Resolutions for 2012.  I don't remember any of my past resolutions before 2012, but I imagine they had to do with losing weight and eating right.  That seems to be a rather common theme this time of year.  Get ready to see a ton of Weight Watchers ads on TV, because they know how many people make the same type of resolution every year.

What's my resolution for 2013, you ask?  1080p.  No, no I kid, I kid. I do have resolutions for the new year because it just seems like such an easy time to commit to a change in lifestyle.  New year, new habits.  In 2012, I made a resolution to save more money and do better at cleaning the apartment.  As a (mostly) stay at home dad, I figured I should make a real effort to keep the apartment clean, because if I'm not going to go out and make more money with some job, I should at least keep the place tidy.  Well, it took some training on my part, but I learned in 2012 that the apartment isn't going to clean itself, and it's a lot easier to maintain a clean apartment than it is to clean a really messy one.  My resolution actually worked.  Well, half way.  I did save money in the savings account for a while there, but then some things came up, (as usual) and I ended up doing a terrible job of saving money.

Which leads me to be serious about what my New Years Resolution for 2013 will be.  I once again have two.  I could roll over my failed resolution from 2012, but I know me, I don't need to double resolve the money saving idea that ain't going to happen.  No, I'm going to go with a dietary resolution.  I know these never really work, but I just want to wear large sized t-shirts out of the house instead of an extra large, so I'm going to get back on the workout train, try to improve the way I look and feel.  I think it'll make me happy.  I know that in order to make it work, I have to focus on it and work really hard at it, and I'm going to try, but the last thing I want is to be one of these folks that work out all the time and talk about how much I work out, and when you see a picture of me, I look exactly the same as I always do.  I want dramatic change in my body appearance.  I'm not going to talk about my workouts on the blog or social media, because no one gives a shit.  Seriously.  I'm just going to do it, because I should, not to show off.

The other half of my resolution is to cook.  My family eats far too many prepackaged foods because it's easier and quicker than making meals.  We are not the best at planning meals and stuff, and I just think we'd all be happier and healthier if we cooked healthy meals.  This is especially important for my lovely daughter, because I don't like what we feed her sometimes, but it's just convenient.  So that's the most important thing.  The workout thing, yeah, I'm gonna do that, but I really feel it's important that I start cooking meals.  It's not just something to make me feel good, it's way more important for my family's health that I do this.  Plus I think it would be fun to experiment with different recipes and ingredients.  It seems like a world I want to be a part of.

So that's what I'm going to do in 2013.  Leave a comment here or perhaps on the bloggerated facebook page telling me what your resolution is.  I'd like to hear from you.  Together, we can make ourselves happier by sticking to whatever it is we feel we need to change in our lives.  I think there's something we all can assess and make a change for the better.  Let's make 2013 our bitch.  Let's work together and motivate each other.  Let's hold each other accountable for our actions so that we stick to it.  Stick together team.  We live together, or we die alone.  

My Favorite Music of 2012

So a few things are converging at the same time that I think is pretty cool.  The end of 2012 and me hitting 20,000 all-time page views.  They should happen around the same time, because they're both really close to happening.  So that's pretty cool.  20,000 times someone has visited my blog space.  I'm pretty sure that's a drop in the bucket for most websites, but for a blog that's only driving force is my own personal thoughts and feelings and experiences, that's pretty cool, if you ask me.  So thanks for stopping by 20,000 times.  Now...what if everyone clicked on an ad every time they visited?  I'd be rich!

Today I present you with my sort of annual My Favorite music post, and this time, we're covering the stuff that came out in 2012.  There was one clear cut winner for my favorite album, and the rest are all tied for second or last.  It's been a weird year for me, musically.  A lot of stuff got played and forgotten about faster than you can say Mumford and Sons.  Others stuck, but perhaps not like they used to, because I'm getting old and that's what happens.

I refuse to use the word "best" when talking about music because music quality is immeasurable.  No one can say what is bad and good.  It's all taste and mood.  There is no best and worst.  Train sucks, but that's just my opinion.  I believe I've written this post already...so I'll spare you, but if you're intersted in what I was interested in this year, continue reading.  If not, this is a good one to skip.

I think it would be appropriate to show you all just what I actually listened to the most this year.  So here's a snapshot of my listening stats for the past 12 months, which was tracked by Last.fm.

As you can see, I listened to a shitload of Vacationer - Gone, and that, my friends, is my favorite album of 2012.  It's not close.  That's one of my all-time favorites now.  I'm not sure what else to say about it.  It's just really good, and I think you all need to go buy it.  Thanks

This list has a lot of artists who albums I spun the hell out of, but they were released before 2012.  For instance, Polar Bear Club.  Their album Crash Battle Guilt Pride was released last year.  So was City and Colour, Moving Mountains and Balance and Composure.  But those were artists I listened to a ton this year, even though they're disqualified from this post.

So I guess it comes down to these artists, which I guess because those artists that are tied for second place:

Uncle Skeleton - All Too Human
Say Anything - Anarchy, My Dear
Silversun Pickups - Neck of the Woods
Japandroids - Celebration Rock
Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror
Mumford and Sons - Babel
Metric - Synthetica
fun. - Some Nights
Low Fat Getting High - Live Moderately, Die Whenever
Good Old War - Come Back As Rain
Young Magic - Melt

And there were more, too, that I would probably include in the list but I never got around to listening to them properly, like Bad Books - II or Slingshot Dakota - Dark Hearts, which I'm pretty sure would be near the top.  But I don't know enough about them.

Listen, if I had to pick from those albums that are tied for second place to be the one I liked the most, I'd say Sleigh Bells, which every reviewer in existence took a shit on.  I really liked it, and that's why you can't trust people who tell you what'd "good music and bad music."  Third place would be maybe Silversun Pickups, I guess.  Yeah, probably.  I really want to say that I'd include fun. in my top three, but one sone, One Foot, makes that album almost off the list all together.  So unfortunate.

So there it is.  Listen to these albums and you'll be happier.  Congratulations to Kenny Vasoli and Vacationer. You are my favorite music in 2012. (see profile pic)  Now a good blogger would link you to iTunes or Amazon or Spotify of SOMETHING so you can easily listen to these albums, but you know, what, there's a reason I only have 20,000 page views all time,  I'm not a good blogger. I did, however, include a link to iTunes for the Vacationer album.  Click on it and buy that shit.  Here's the link again for those of you that are scroll illiterate HERE!!!

Have a good rest of the year and lets keep our fingers crossed that 2013 is the best year for music of our lives!!!

Shopping Was a Pleasure

Friday afternoon I went grocery shopping at Publix in the Bellevue area.  The Bellevue Publix is the best grocery store in the greater Nashville area (that I've found) simply because they sell Waffle Crisp in their "special requests" section.  I'll make that trip to that store as often as possible just for that reason.  I imagine I could make my own special request for Waffle Crisp at the Publix that I would usually shop at, but I happened to be in the area, so I chose that one.  I'm in that area enough these days visiting friends that I can justify stopping in and grabbing a box as often as I'd like without the need to make any crazy special requests of any other Publix stores. I was really surprised when we moved down here that I couldn't find any store that carried Waffle Crisp, which by the way is the greatest cereal of all time, in my opinion.  One time, my good friend Katie bought four boxes of it online and had them shipped to my house.  That is still one of the coolest things anyone has ever done for me.  Maybe she didn't buy them online, I don't remember, but I got a box in the mail with four boxes of breakfast gold delivered to my house.  Great day, that was.

Anyway, I was shopping at Publix in Bellevue when this guy working there came by and he was pushing a cart with chopped up pineapple and clementines, offering the shoppers free samples.  I love those fruits, but I know that clementines can be a real hit or miss situation, so I avoided that offering.  But I grabbed one of those fresh-looking, chopped pineapple chunks, and man, it was way good.  I know what pineapple tastes like, and I love it, and I didn't need a sample to remind me of that.  I hate hate hate it on pizza, but as a stand-alone fruit, it's one of my absolute favorites   But I wasn't going to buy any pineapple on Friday, however I totally bought some because that sample was delicious.  I even bought the pre-chunked ones they sell, which is more expensive than just buying a whole pineapple.  I wanted that experience again!

That dude totally sold me a pineapple.  Their scheme worked.  They got me to sample something I didn't need a sample of, and I bought in.  That's why they do it, man.  They're in the business of selling stuff.  Good job, Publix free fruit guy.  You sold that fruit to me.  I was happy to eat it later, and I was satisfied with my purchase.

Also, at that Publix, they sell 12 packs of Stroh's.  I have never seen Stroh's in Tennessee.  Not that I would by Stroh's beer, but they sell it!  They also sell Vernors, which makes my lovely wife happy.  Shopping sure is a pleasure at Publix.  

Apocalypse Now and Then

Okay, let us assume for a second that the Mayan calender isn't a fluke, and let's forget for a second that they didn't take into account leap years.  If we are to believe the news stories and all that about the Mayans and their calender, that means that we all have one week to live.  One week until the apocalypse.  Better make it a damn good week.

Okay, but seriously, we all know that the world isn't going to end next Friday, but what if it was?  Would it hurt to live this week as if it were?  I think it would be pretty cool if we all lived one week as if it were our last.  That guy Tim McGraw has it right, man.  Living like you were dying would be pretty cool. 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu. I think it's important to know that tomorrow isn't guaranteed, and we need to seize the moment now!  So I say let's pretend that the world is ending next Friday.  This would be the best week of our lives!  When it doesn't end, that's great, and life could just go on, and we'll continue on with whatever we were doing before this week started.

The problem, now that I think about it, is that if you were to live like there was no next week, and then there was actually a next week, you would probably do some shit you would regret.   I mean, the appeal of living like there will be no next week is that there is no consequences for your actions, right?  So if you decide to try to bang a bunch of chicks, do a bunch of blow and steal a bunch of money, if there was no next week, you wouldn't have to answer to those actions.  But the reality is, there will be a next week, and you would probably get sent to jail for some of that stuff, so probably don't do that.

But maybe this is a chance to do something daring, something that you would only do if there was no repercussions?  But maybe when you decide to do something weird, just know that there will be a next week, and you may have to answer to someone about it.  But choose somehthing that's a little scary, and have a blast while doing it.  I refuse to say "you only live once," but I mean...it's sort of true, no?

Let me know how you spend your Apocalypse week!  Have a good last week on Earth!!!

The 13th Birthday Party

I come to you today with a fuzzy story that had been long forgotten.  It easily could have been a story of wild and crazy youths doing wild and crazy things, but it's not.  It's a story of one weird yet pretty cool night. Well, as cool as it gets at the age of 13.

I'm actually pretty amazed I remember so much, considering I had forgotten about the whole thing for so many years.  What I remember is that it was my 13th birthday party.  My mom had set it up to have me and two friends stay at a Ramada Inn suite for a night by ourselves, a night with video games and probably pizza.  I remember that it was actually a week before my birthday, for whatever reason, and that just happened to be my good friend Mark Celeskey's birthday, who was one of the two friends I chose to have at my party.  The other was Nick Whitford.  I don't remember too much about the early part of the party, except that I had brought my Sega Genesis to the room so we could play NCAA College Slam, which I had rented for the weekend.  I remember my mom leaving, and I'm pretty sure I remember smoking cigarettes in the room.  This might not be true, but I know Nick would not have been a fan of that.  If that actually happened, I don't remember, but Mark and I were known to smoke at that young age.  In fact, that was pretty much the basis of our friendship.  Smoking cigarettes in various hidden places around Negaunee.

What makes this night special is that earlier in the evening, we were in the hotel's pool, swimming, minding our own business, when there were suddenly about 15 girls about our age also in the pool.  They were attending a separate birthday party at the same area of the hotel, just across on the other side of the pool.  Of course, this send a lot of...feelings into my 13 year old brain.  I can assume this was the case for my friends, as well.  Well after my mom had left, we managed to contact the girls' room, and I don't remember what was said or who did the talking, but some of the girls ended up in our hotel room.  Like, 4 or 5, I'd say.  I really don't remember.  I don't remember what their names were, what they looked like, or really anything about the girls, except they were from Ishpeming, (the next town over from ours) and I didn't know any of them previously.

Now, I mentioned in the above paragraph that I don't know who did the talking to get these girls into our hotel suite, but I am 100% confidant that it was not me.  I couldn't talk to girls.  I still wouldn't be the one to talk girls into coming to my party.  But there they were, and I didn't know what to do.

Later in the evening, a couple of the girls told us guys that there was something or other going on over in the reception hall area, and there was dancing.  They suggested we go dancing with them.  So, we did.  I don't know why there was dancing, but I remember that there was an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that we had to sit through.  I remember people having their chips for sobriety.  I remember asking the girls if it was really okay for us to be there, and the girls assuring us that it was fine.  And I remember dancing.  I don't really understand why there was dancing at an AA meeting.  I'm thinking I'm mixing something up, because that doesn't make any sense.  I do remember that us kids were the only ones dancing.  I haven't been to an AA meeting since.

I also remember at one point trying to climb over a railing, and having a hard time getting my fat, 13 year old body over it.  So Mark, always wiling to lend a hand, grabbed my leg and pulled me over the rest of the way, rolling my nuts on the rail, causing me great pain and embarrassment due to the laughing girls.  You never forget hurting your nuts while trying to impress girls.

But that's the thing, I don't think I tried to impress any girls.  I just didn't have it in me.  If I'm not mistaken, Mark ended up with a "girlfriend" out of the night, but none of the girls wanted anything to do with me.  I bet if I knew what I was doing, that could have been different.  It just wasn't in my nature, and really, it still isn't.  I'm lucky I got one to say yes to me, and once she did, I've not let her go for almost 12 years now.    

So that's my story of my 13th birthday party.  Played some Sega, ate some pizza, danced with some girls at an AA meeting and crushed my balls on a railing.  Pretty good night, I'd say.  I had totally forgotten about that until yesterday. 13 years later, I had my wedding reception in that very room where we went danced. I wonder if those guys remember?  What I really wonder is, who were those girls from that other party?  If you are reading this and you were from Ishpeming and went to a birthday party at the Ramada Inn in Marquette on March 23/24, 1996, get at me. Hey, I know chances are slim, but it was a long time ago, maybe we met again later in life? Maybe you remember some of this?  That would be pretty awesome.

Have a nice day!

How I Met Your Expectations

I lump all CBS shows into one category.  Total shit.  Yeah, I mean except like, the Price is Right and Letterman, and even Letterman has gone way downhill in the past couple years.  And let me be fair, that's a pretty bold statement to kick off this post, I just haven't found many CBS shows to be entertaining or enjoyable at all for the past, oh I don't know, 10 years or so.  Total shit?  Maybe not, but not my kind of shows to watch? Absolutely.

So when someone tells me to watch a CBS comedy (which usually always suck) that has canned laughter (what is this, the 80's and 90's?  What is this TGIF?!?!) I'm not going to be very receptive to the idea.  I like shows like Community, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, or Modern Family.  Those shows are all shot in a unique way for a TV comedy. They're different and they are hilarious.  But this isn't a post about what shows I like and what shows I don't like, this is about shattering expectations, and learning to give things a chance before dismissing them, even if you doubt you'll be swayed.

The inspiration here is a little show called How I Met Your Mother.  Canned laughter comedy on CBS, no chance I'll enjoy it.  In fact, I gave it a shot one night, right here on my couch, with the removal of all preconceived notions.  I still didn't like it.  It wasn't funny.  It wasn't groundbreaking, or even interesting.

But I didn't stop watching.  It wasn't bad enough for me to say "never again," like I have with several other horrible TV shows.  No, I came back.  I was convinced by the convictions of the fans that it is a good show, and that it is funny.  My roommate and sister-in-law has been watching every episode from the beginning here, whenever she has a chance, and every once in a while, I'm here to watch while she does.  I gotta tell you, I just watched three episodes in a row from season 4, and they were really funny.  Every time I watch this show, it gets funnier.

So there you go, I don't hate this show, even though everything indicates that I would.  I guess you can't just say you don't like something without trying it.  I've heard that statement my whole life, and it's been proven many times over.  This just further cements that thought into my head.  

Christmas Tree

So let me get this straight.  We put an evergreen, a conifer, in our house?  Ever think about that?  Isn't it weird that we chop down a pine tree and put it in our house, then decorate it with lights and ornaments?

I guess it dates back to a time when things of this nature were used to ward of evil spirits, as one would expect from people in the olden days.  They'd do just about anything to ward off evil spirits, wouldn't they?  I totally get the symbolism of having an evergreen as a thing to celebrate, because it symbolized eternal life, right?  It doesn't lose all it's leaves and look dead in the winter.  We can place this tradition on the Germans, who started putting trees in places and decorating them with apples to represent the forbidden fruit.  Later, they changed the apples to red bulbs.  That makes sense.

This is just one of those things that I think about and realize that it's a strange thing to do, yet we all do it every year.  Unlike other traditions on this and other holidays, we don't ever really question the Christmas tree and it's symbolism like we do with the Easter bunny or Easter eggs, or Santa Claus.  We just accept the tree in the house as totally normal, regardless of what it means.

Anyway, just something I thought of while looking at the tree.  Merry Christmas.  

iPhone 4S, iTunes and what is "Other?"

The thing I love most about the iPhone is that they are easy to use and easy to understand.  Everything is pretty intuitive, and if you mess around with it for just a short period, most people get the hang of what is what, and what does what.  You understand what it's capable of doing, and what it isn't capable of doing.  But every once in a while, there's something that an iPhone does that I can't figure out.  I ran into one such problem this morning while trying to free up some space on my phone.

I have a 16 GB iPhone, so space is limited.  I have nearly 6 GB of apps on there, and I've removed some of the bigger apps that were taking up space and I didn't need on there anymore (like Spotify, which I don't pay for so the app is kind of useless except for the radio feature, which is pretty sweet, but not sweet enough to take up as much room as the app takes up.)  But there was a mystery that I cannot solve.  According to my iTunes, when I hook up my phone, there is around 2.8 GB of space being taken up by "other."  I can't figure out what "other" is, and it's sort of driving me crazy.  Like I said, my phone is only 16 GB, so having nearly three of those precious gigs being taken up by a mystery "other" makes me want to do something about it.  

I searched around the internet, and I didn't really find anything, except someone saying that it's "album artwork, app artwork, things like that."  Really, though?  Almost three GB of artwork?  I deleted every song off my phone and it didn't budge the "other" section all that much (though it did go down slightly).  The fact that it moved makes me believe that this does have something to do with what "other" is.  But how do I significantly reduce the amount of space "other" is taking up?  

My other theory was that it was the weird data from my phone streaming my music library from iTunes Match.  That was actually my first theory, but after turning off iTunes Match and syncing my phone, it didn't do anything to "other."  No change. iTunes Match used to download every song you played from iCloud to your phone, but that was with the old iOS.  Now it doesn't download the music, or at least as far as I can tell.  It's really unclear to me.  I stream music from iTunes Match all the time, and when I turn Match off, the music isn't downloaded to my phone like it used to do.  That's why I thought that perhaps the "other" was this half-downloaded music in limbo.  No, I don't think it is, but who really knows?  I would have thought that Apple would have bragged somewhere that with iTunes Match you can stream you iTunes library without using up your phones space, but they haven't.  That's why I thought there was something up.  I don't know, it's just weird.

I also thought it might be Podcasts.  I am using the new Podcasts app, and I have a few podcasts that are unplayed and a few are kinda big.  I thought, since it's not technically in the music app anymore, maybe iTunes doesn't know how to categorize it.  After a bunch of trial and error, and deleting shit left and right, it made no impact on "other."  In fact, I came to the conclusion that my Podcasts are, in fact, recognized within the "music" section of the phone's usage.  So no, that's not it either.

This is where the internet can continue to help me.  Do you know how to reduce how much space "other" is taking up?  I beg you, let me know how I can reduce this burden!  If there is something simple I can do, or perhaps something I can do in the future to reduce adding to the "other" problem, that would be swell.  

Bloggerated Lives + Grooveshark Player

Alright big news here at Bloggerated.  First off, I had my domain name, bloggerated.com expire this past week, and if I didn't renew it, I'd have lost everything, so I had to pay the man, and we're back in business. I really didn't want to have to start over.  So we'll be bloggin here at this ol' site for at least another year!

Secondly, I was jamming some Orange 9mm over on Grooveshark when I noticed that there was a "share song" option.  I was pretty excited, because I want to share music with you guys whenever possible.  Music is a passion of mine, so I'd like to be able to tell you what I like when I like it.  I was able to add an HTML gadget to the sidebar of ye old blog, in which I can add whatever song from Grooveshark I'd like.  So, now you can come here and listen to the "Hand Picked Song" whenever you wanna know what's good.  I'm the authority on good music...said no one ever.  But still, I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about.  I probably won't announce that I've replaced the song, and I won't know if you actually listened to the song or not, but hey, it's there for you if you'd like.  I imagine I'll continue to post songs and stuff from bandcamp when I feel like it.  Grooveshark's library is rather limited, so who knows if be able to post exactly what I want.  You won't know those details, however, because it doesn't matter.  So first off, I've posted a song by Polar Bear Club that I happen to think is real good.  It'll probably be there a little while until I remember to change it.  Remember when I had that sweet Lala.com player?  That was the best.  Well now I have this Grooveshark thing.  Enjoy some music!

So that's what's up here.  Nothing but business in this post.  Oh by the way, in case you hadn't noticed, it's somehow it's December already. That was fast, eh?

Well anyway, have a solid weekend.  I'll be around to blog some more real soon.  I've got thoughts rattling around up there, so hopefully I'll write them down before I forget them.  

Vloggerated: Flamingos and Outtakes

Here's a little compilation of outtakes from the videos I've made over the past year or so.  Enjoy.

Birth Control

I believe everyone really wants a little tropical goth in their life.  This music comes to you from some/a acquaintance(s) of mine.  They put out some great tunes that people generally enjoy.  Take a listen, and if you really like it, it's available at their bandcamp page as a download free of charge.  As a matter of fact, if I'm not mistaken, you can go ahead and download this shizz form right here at Bloggerated.com.  If not, you know, you can just go to bandcamp and snag it from there.  What am I doing?  You know what to do!  Press play, stupid!

Enjoy!

Diamond Youth

Please do yourselves a favor.  Take my advice for once.  This album is great.  I've been listen to it for months now, and I actually paid my hard earned money for it on iTunes, not realizing that the band made their album a FREE DOWNLOAD on their bandcamp page.

 #1, don't make the mistake of not listening to this great band.
 #2, don't make the mistake of just blindly buying things off iTunes when the band offers stuff for free.

 So here you go.  At least stream it, and if you're only gonna stream one song, try either "Fix of Mine" or last one, called Pleasantries   It's so catchy!

Secret Black Friday Deals Revealed

I drink all the coffee I want, it's not going to change the heaviness of my eyelids.  I'm tired, and rightfully so, folks.  At the time of this writing, it's 2:26 am, according to the little clock in the corner of this computer screen, but somehow, it doesn't feel like it should possibly be that late already.  I'm pretty bored out of my mind and I'm not able to sleep in my current situation, (if you know what I mean) and decided to check out my blog stats, for shits and giggles. That's when I thought, "Hey, if you want stats, don't you think you should be writing, not just hanging around?"  But then I said to myself, "But Brad, what would you possibly write about?  You haven't been inspired in weeks, what could you write?  Please don't write one of those blogs where you explain to the reader that you have nothing to write about!"

I've got an idea. What about Thanksgiving?  Yes!  Thanksgiving is when the Indians and the Pilgrims got together to eat the Indians' food.   How very nice of the Indians.  Now we get together with family or friends and eat abused turkeys and watch the Detroit Lions.  Pretty close to the same thing, eh?  It's a weird holiday, but I'm not one to celebrate the original meaning of whatever holiday we're talking about, I just use holidays as an excuse to get together with family.  Like for instance, do I really care that Christmas day is suppose to be the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ?  Nope, I just want to exchange gifts with people.  I just want to hear Christmas songs and have a tree and there to be lights. I love Christmas, but not because of Jesus. Thanksgiving, while the origins are good enough, I suppose, is not about the Indians and pilgrims   It's about eating food and watching mediocre football with family and/or friends.  Did I say eating?  I meant gorging. That's what it is.  I look forward to it.


So now that I've talked about Thanksgiving, now I need a way to trick people into reading this.  I think an easy way to do that is to title this thing something that will create traffic, all the while deceiving the Internet user.  Perhaps something like "Secret Black Friday Deals Revealed" or "Walmart Target Black Friday Specials Leak."  Haha yeah, cheap traffic.  I just want to destroy any shred of credibility I might have, which is zero, by the way.  Maybe they'll click my ads before they angrily click the back button back to the Google results?  Maybe they'll buy a t shirt?  It makes a great Christmas gift.

Why SongPop Is Not The New Draw Something

From time to time, I like to talk about iPhone apps.  It should be no secret if you know me well enough that I love my iPhone.  I really do.  I can't imagine life without it.  It's sad to say, but it's totally true.  Well anyway, one of the things I like to do the most is play games against my friends.  Starting with Words with Friends, all the way up to the newest phenomenon, SongPop.  In between those, most games have hung around, with a only a handful of people still playing them on a not-so-regular basis.  But there was one game in there that really interests me in particular, and that game is Draw Something.

Wow, did people quit playing that en mass, eh?  Like, everyone quit playing that at the same time, and no matter what sort of in-game incentives they offered, no one really went back to it.  I've checked.  I played a drawing yesterday, the first in 14 days, and the second in months, and it really got me thinking how crazy that ride was.

I mentioned SongPop in that first paragraph, and it's interesting, because that's the comparison that many are making.  This SongPop is the new Draw Something.  That's exactly what I said when I started playing SongPop a couple weeks ago.  This will last for a minute and then fizzle out just like Draw Something.  But after I thought about it for a while, I've seemed to come to a conclusion on what was fundamentally wrong with the game Draw Something that made it flame out like it did, and why that might not happen to SongPop.

First off, the game Draw Something requires you to be creative, and have some sort of drawing skill.  SongPop requires you to recognize a song as quickly as possible.  That's the basics of each game.  Draw Something got really old when we were asked to choose between trying to draw Justin Bieber or "brick."  Well, I'm going to draw brick, because I can't really draw Bieber without it looking like a stick figure on a stage, all the while hoping that my "opponent" can unscramble the words well enough to guess Justin Bieber. So I/we ended up just drawing the same shit over and over.  When I had 17 games going against everyone and their (and my) mother, you have to be creative for a good stretch of time.  I'm not going to say that the game wasn't fun, but the task was suddenly daunting.  I don't want to open this game, it makes me mad, yet I enjoyed playing it at the same time.  It was a weird conflict.

Oh and speaking of "opponents," therein lies another problem.  You weren't competing against your friends, you were basically working with them.  No one could establish dominance over ones opponent. There was no incentive to keep going back to try and conquer anyone.  For example, I am a very dominant player at the game Scramble with Friends.  I keep going back to the game to reestablish that I am the best, and no one can beat me.  People do occasionally beat me, and I imagine it is a great thrill to those who manage it, but I want to be the best there is at Scramble with Friends, so I continue playing it.  You couldn't be the best at Draw Something. I keep coming back and playing SongPop because I want to beat my brother.  I want to beat...er I mean... defeat my wife.  I want to crush everyone. You can actually win at SongPop. You cannot win at Draw Something. It just goes on and on forever.

So that is why SongPop is not the new Draw Something.  The two games are just fundamentally different.  The problems with Draw Something is that it forces the player to be more creative than they are actually capable of, and you can't win.  SongPop is fun, it's competitive, and you can win, whether it's by the slightest margin or by a landslide. Who knows? Maybe by this time next month (next week?) it'll be a wasteland of a game as well.  But for now, I'm enjoying it very much, thank you.  

Slingshot Dakota

Yo, I just wanted to see if this works, and it looks like it does.  This is a good thing.  Anyway, this is Slingshot Dakota and they're amazing.  I can't wait to hear more from them.  I'm a fan.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy the jam.  

Laundry Day!

You know, I don't mind doing laundry.  I really don't.  I don't like putting clothes away, but the actual act of putting clothes in the washer, adding soap and all that part, I like doing it.  I like estimating if it's a "large load" or an "extra large load."  I like measuring out the soap, which is different every time I do laundry, I think.  I like pulling the wet clothes out and throwing them in the drier, and doing it with way more throwing/whipping action than is really necessary.  I like pulling the warm clothes out of the drier after it's done.  It's like pulling freshly baked cookies out of the oven.  The smell so good, and you're happy that your favorite thing is in you hands.  Clean, good smelling clothes or cookies, if you put cookies if we're still talking about cookies, here.  Either way you're pretty happy, I bet.  Wait, is it spelled dryer or drier?  Spell check says they're both good to go...hmmm.  I think it's dryer.  Let's go with that.

Then comes the part that sucks.  Putting the clean clothes away.  I'd rather not, thanks.  But if I don't, all the clothes will get wrinkly.  Then you can't wear them unless you iron them (which ain't happening) or use that dewrinkler spray stuff (that smells bad and makes your clothes all damp.)  No, you have to put them away in a timely manner.  But I don't want to.  I'm done doing laundry now.  

Sometimes I let the clothes sit in the basket and just forget about them and then the dewrinkler spray is the only situation I have.  Not always, but just sometimes it happens.  

I'm just glad I don't have to take the clothes out of the house and to the laundromat anymore.  I did that for far to long, and now that I've lived with a washer and dryer in my house for a few years, I'll never live somewhere that doesn't have that.  Lydia don't know how good she got it at our place, I tell ya.  

I think of this because I have to do laundry later, and that's okay with me.  I don't mind.  But at the end of it all, I'll have to put it all away, and that just sucks.  

Have a good laundry day!

(not) Fun with Wikipedia Random Article

Okay, I'm bored and I need something to entertain myself, so let's have some fun with the Wikipedia random article generator.

On the side of Wikipedia, there's a link that says "Random Article."  What I'm going to do is hit it, and whatever pops up, I'll write about it, using information I've found on the page.  I'm only going to hit it one time, so that's going to be the article.  No cheating for me.  Okay, here goes...

OOOkaay..so I got "Mast (Sufism)"  and this is going to be not only difficult to write about, but also difficult to understand.  Also, difficult to make for an entertaining read.  Now, I will read the article, and then tell you all what it's about without looking back at the article.  GO!

So basically, it's being "intoxicated with God," to the point where the person has lost touch with reality.  They've experienced such a profound inner-somethingorother that they pretty much go crazy, but you know, because it's crazy for God, it's "okay."  This has something to do with Sufi's, which I'm not familiar with.  I guess it happens a lot, in areas like Iran and what is now Pakistan.  This is the whitest thing ever written.  Also, Mast is pronounced "must."  Ha, well this Mast thing seems like a pretty profound experience that I'm just sort of waxing on on a Blogger blog...Feels sorta weird.  Anyway...So...Wow, so that was fun.

...No it wasn't.  I'm sorry for that.  Have a good rest of your Saturday, though.  We'll do this again another time.  And try and generate your own random article.  Hey, you might learn something.  I did!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_(Sufism)

Pajamas

You know what I want to get?  I want to get some of those pajamas that are actually pajamas.  Like, the pants and matching button-down shirt, perhaps with stripes on them.  Oh, and one of those sleep caps that I've never seen in real life, only in pictures and cartoons and the Don't Wake Daddy board game.  Whatever happened to pajamas?  Since when do we all just sleep in whatever we're wearing?  Whatever happened to dressing up to go to sleep? Whatever happened to nightgowns for ladies?  Does anyone wear nightgowns anymore?  No one in my house does.

I guess I started thinking about pajamas this morning because I wish I was wearing them right now instead of this work uniform.  Pajamas are great!  I used to wear pajamas as a kid.  I wore them for a number of years, until, well, I don't remember when I started sleeping in basketball shorts every night, but that's what I do now.  That's not pajamas.  I have t-shirts that are either to old and ratty to wear out of the house, or a tight-fitting t-shirt or two that I wear to sleep.  I'm convinced that I sleep better in a tight-fitting shirt, and this is a conclusion I've only come to in the past couple of months. I can roll over and not be all caught up in this baggy shirt all night long. People sleep in all kinds of stuff, in all kinds of combinations.  Bethany sleeps with no pants and a t-shirt.  Lydia seems to sleep in sweatpants and a tanktop, mostly. I couldn't sleep in sweatpants.  That seems like it'd be too warm.  But she does, so that's fine, I guess.

It got me thinking, what do people sleep in the most?  I'd like to think the "no pants, t-shirt" thing is probably a popular choice, but I have this theory that I don't want to be sleeping in anything I wouldn't want to have to run into the street wearing.  So it's basketball shorts for me.  But I think I really want to try out an actual pair of pajamas.  Like, the kind that when you get up in the morning and stretch, your ankles get exposed.  And I want one of those caps.  Like, look at Bananas in Pajamas.  If Bananas in Pajamas were like me, they'd be wearing basketball shorts and a black t-shirt, and they wouldn't be called Bananas in Pajamas, they'd be called Bananas Who Are Ballers.  "Bananas that are the "shirts" in a "shirts v.s. skins" game." You can't market that.  That would never sell.  

What do you sleep in?  Naked?  I've tried that a couple times, just to try it, and it usually sucks.  There's a control issue there, where I like my skin to be contained inside something, know what I mean?  I've tried just sleeping in boxers, but again, same issue.  I don't like all that freedom of some of my parts that I don't need to be free.  I don't know, what I sleep in is comfortable enough, but perhaps I'm missing an amazing experience of actual adult pajamas.  If real pajamas are good enough for my daughter, then damn it, I want some myself.  

Best Video Ever

Eating Expired Yogurt

This will be the death of me.

Recently I discovered that Fage Greek yogurt is super good.  I was aware of how great Greek yogurt was, but this brand is exceptionally good.  I found this out when we were flying home from Boston, and grabbed a snack at the Newark airport.  My wife got a Greek yogurt, Fage Yogurt, for little baby Evie to eat because she could use the protein, or whatever.  So I shared it with her and was totally impressed with the stuff.  I went out later that day after getting home and grabbed another one for my near-future eating pleasure, and that one was totally good, as well.

So now, skip ahead to today, I went to the grocery store and got a Fage yogurt to enjoy whilst at work, like, this very moment that I'm typing this.  Well, I just pulled it out of the fridge and noticed that it has an expiration date of like, three weeks ago.  It's stamped "Jul 21 2012."  (it's August 11th, now)

I think I'm going to eat it anyway.  Well at least crack it open and see if it's looking or smelling funky.  If it looks okay, I'm totally going to eat it.  While at the store, I made a special journey from one end of the store all the way to the other end, specifically to get one of these yogurts.  I'm not letting that effort go to waste, damn it.

So if you don't hear from me soon, you'll know that I totally died from eating expired Greek yogurt.  If I died from it, just know that I loved you all very much, and thank you for reading my blogs.  But if I die, and this is my last post, I still want to say thank you and stuff, but I'm disappointed that you people don't click on my ads more often...I get paid for that, you know?

So this is goodbye, either just for now, or perhaps forever.  Fage Yogurt is good enough for me to die for, I guess.  

Bloggerated goes to Boston! A Video

Hey hey hey!  What's going on, everybody?  Came by today because I've worked hard on making a new video, and I now want you all to watch it.  This took a really long time to make, like, for real.  Partially because I was just about done making it and accidentally deleted everything I had been working on for two hours.  Had to restart from scratch.  But I think that it helped because it was like the rough draft that got deleted, and the final product is much better than what I was making in the first place, so I guess it's a good thing that happened.

Okay, no more typing for me and no more reading for you, let's get to the video!

A Tuesday in Boston in July

Okay, so yesterday after I wrote my post, I suddenly got really weirded out by the idea of leaving the hotel room. I don't know why, but suddenly I was afraid of humans, and I was sure I'd be laughed at for something. This was all in my head and it felt really strange. Well, once that passed, I did leave the hotel and It was a good day because of it.

I went over to the library, and I have to say, I was not that impressed. Nashville's library is more spectacularly laid out, but I suppose that's because its only like, 12 years old. This library is really old, and you could tell by how cramped it was. I'm fairly sure I didn't see what I was supposed to see, because all I saw was some stairs, some narrow corridors, a sweet courtyard in the middle, and a few books looking to be checked out by residents of the city of Boston. Big whoop. So tell me what I missed?

Anyway as I left I saw a food truck, so I got some food from it. It was a kale, garlic, squash flatbread pizza thing. pretty good, especially for $6.

Later on the whole family went and ate at a restaurant called Papa Razzi. It was tasty. Afterwards we walked up and down Newbury st, which has all these cool shops and stuff. Bethany got a tank top.

As we walked, we saw a place called Johnny Cupcakes. We both noticed that they had a cool cupcake and crossbones logo, and that was a nice design. On the back, we passed the shop again, and we both admitted we had intrigue about these cupcakes. Just as we were about to make the turn into the shop, some guy walked past us in a group and we both overheard him telling his group that three weren't any actual cupcakes in there, and without saying a word, bethany and I kept on walking past. We laughed at ourselves, because we were glad we didn't walk in there lookin like fatties lookin for cupcakes. I'm sure we wouldn't be the first. Turns out Johnny Cupcakes is a cool clothing company. Okay, good to know.

It was raining and that put the kibosh on or plan to go up to the top of the prudential tower and have a look at the city from above. That's been postponed until Thursday now. Instead, we sat around the hotel room and I drank strong beer, which got me drunk.

That all, thanks for reading. Have a good day. Going to the Red Sox game tonight. Should be a real highlight of my whole entire life.

Here's some pics.

Update from Beautiful Boston

One weird observation about this place is that I feel like this is a town that thrives on being cold. This seems like a great place to visit on the fall or winter. I don't really know why, but I just always imagined Boston as being perpetually September and October. Perhaps that's the baseball fan in me, where the only times I ever saw Boston was when the Red Sox were in the playoffs the past 10 years. Probably.

Anyway, after one day of mild exploration, and some major hotel chillin', I'm feeling a little bit more comfortable here. All I could think about yesterday was how "out of my comfort zone" I felt when walking around here. This is probably still true, but at least now I have a game plan today.

I think I'll take the grueling journey across the street to the oldest public library in the universe (or something like that) today. They say it's one of the "must-do" things while here, and since I'm already so close and it's (probably) free, count me in. I'm also thinking about going over to the prudential center and hitting up the observation deck. All the online reviews said it was cool and also a "go for it" on your Boston to-do list. This is also just a hop skip and jump from my current location. Buuuuut, It's. $14 a person...might do it anyway. Bethany can come with us to that and we can see the city in the evening or at night, because it's open until like, 10:30 or something like that.

Thought about going to the aquarium, but it's like $23... And Bethany can't come because they (for whatever dumb reason) close at five o'clock?!?!
That's dumb, bro. That's real dumb. It would give me an excuse to take the T, which I'm interested in doing, but, I'll have to find another excuse. I could do that without Bethany and it would be cheaper, but she said she'd be jealous if I did, so maybe I'll just leave that one off...

Okay so I'm sitting in a bath robe, Bethany had just delivered egg and cheese croissants me, so I think I'll go eat now.

Goodbye, from Boston!

Well, I'm Here

Okay, I'm here. Now what? I mean, I've got this whole city at my fingertips, and I don't expect anyone to honestly tell me what I'm supposed to be doing on my "vacation" but I really don't know what to do. Evie and I are going to take a walk and see what we find, but I don't have a plan.

One problem I have here is that it's cold. Really cold. Like, below 70 degrees, cold. That sucks.

We got free wifi in the room for some reason, so that's cool except we left the laptop at home. So, I'm blogging from my phone!

Another fun story, first thing I did last night upon entering the hotel room was pick up this bottle of Pino Noir that was on the desk. It wasn't until later that I noticed that everything is on sensors and the room gets automatically charged when you pick anything up, so we're probably getting charged for that. Dumb.

I'll leave you with a couple pics. See us later.

Shipping Up to Boston

Alright alright, today is travel day.  Travel day is my most favoriteist day of the year.  I just love flying.  I'd love to be like George Clooney in Up in the Air, just flying and flying and flying.  I just love it.

Anyway, I like the fact that I know in advance that today I will be making memories that go into the long-term memory bank instead of just the short-term one.  Knowing that is just the best feeling.  And I like how at the beginning of this post I wrote that "Travel day is my most favoriteist day of the year" as if it's promised that I'll travel no mater what.  That's not true, but it's sort of always been that way, hasn't it?  There is always some sort of traveling being done, throughout life.

I like that I remember most, if not all, of my trips that I've taken since being an older child.  I remember all the cool places, and even the not as cool places I've gone.  That's how I know that today, I'll be putting memories into the long-term bank, because I remember going to Green Bay and buying football jerseys for school clothes in 1996, for cryin' out loud.  I remember shit pretty easily.

So we're going to be in Boston, and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss out on the certain things you're supposed to do when in Boston, so I was trying to think of all things Boston that I knew about.  So while there, I gotta eat Boston cream pie, eat Boston baked beans, and drink Boston lager.  I hear you're supposed to eat clam chowder while there, and that's fine.  I like a good chowder.  That's all I came up with.  There has got to be more stuff than just that, right?  Seems kinda weak.

Well if you think of anything else boston-related, please let me know.  I'll be there, so if you need me to grab you anything, like a discounted Ray Allen jersey, or something, let me know.

Safe travels...to me!!!

I Quit: I Ran Outta Patches

I ran out of nicotine patches the other day.  Each box is a two week supply, and my two weeks ended on Tuesday.  I've had a nicotine-free body since then.  It's not horrible, but it's not great.  Yes. I'm worried.

Doubt is slipping into my head, doubt that I can really live without nicotine.  I have no idea why, obviously I'm smart enough to know that I can physically go on living without it.  But there's just some sort of pacifier effect, I think, that I'm missing out on.  I'm just used to having it, to soothe me.  I mean, c'mon, how hard is it to just not smoke?  Just don't do it.

I didn't buy more patches, even though the program said I was supposed to.  I screwed it up again.  Well, as long as I never go back to smoking ever again, I'd say it was a huge success.  As of right now, I'm a non-smoker,  and a non-addict.  A former addict. No, that's no good, I can tell I'm still addicted, it's just more manageable now.  Feels good to say that out loud, though.  But there is that idiot part inside of me that is giving me an excuse to go buy cigarettes, or bum them, because I didn't go through the program correctly.  "It's not my fault, it's the patches that I didn't buy/want to pay for."

God I hope I'm smarter than I think.

It's especially tough at work, where there's boredom, which causes the need to kill time, and this used to be done by smoking on the smoke deck.  Now I have no reason to get up and walk, which gets old fast.  Sometimes I go and stand out there anyway, and it helps a little.  stretch out the legs, get some fresh air, stuff like that.  I don't know, this is tough, and I now have an excuse to let myself fail.  But that's the easy way out.  I will try.  I will try to do this.  I want to feel like I'm above the average failed quitter.  I want to move on from this.

Okay, that's all.  I'm super tired.

Vloggerated: I Quit pt. 2. Me, Talking

So I recorded some video while at work last Sunday, and I now present you with that video.  This is the most traditional "Vlog" I've ever done, and I gotta say, I don't think I like it.  What's more egotistical than sticking a camera in your own face, talking into it about yourself, posting it to the Internet, and expecting people to think it's cool?  Nothing?  Perhaps, but I did it anyway because I was bored.  So, here ya go.  Enjoy.

Post About What I'm Going To Post About

www.bloggerated.com  your source for useful information/useless information.  Lets face it, sometimes it's a real crapshoot.  But this time, I promise to deliver the goods.  No no, not this one, I mean in the future.  Not on this post.  No, this is just filler.  Thanks for stopping by and reading, anyway.  And while you're here, why don't you check out some of these fantastic sponsors that have been so kind as to provide you with today's blog post.  Check out these links on the right side of the page, and right below this post below the commehts section.  Much appreciated. 

Right, so this is one of those posts where I'm going to tell you what I'm going to write about in the future.  Why is that?  Well I don't have much to say right now, but I will in the near future.

On the 29th of this month, I'm going to fly to Boston, Massachusetts with a 15 month old "lap child."  Last time I flew, and I suppose this time as well, I've had a hard time finding someone who has written about what their experience was like flying/traveling with babies.  I am here to fill that gap, you guys.

Yeah, so we're flying United, and I can't wait to see what it's like.  I've flown Delta and American the last two times I flew, and they were both pretty good.  Delta wins because they have Biscoff cookies, which are the greatest things ever handed to a passenger on an airplane.

Anyway, I'm putting you on notice, United airlines.  You are being put to the test here, and if you fail, everyone will know about it, because I'll tell on you!   Also, lookin' at you, Westin Copley Place.  Spotlights on you, too, buddy.

See ya soon. 

I Quit: Test Your Might

So, right, where have I been?  I've been busy, that's where.  Things tent to get hectic around here around the 4th, because my parents like to come visit, and we usually do stuff all the time.  This year is no exception, and we've been mighty busy for sure.

One thing I was busy with is not smoking, which by the way is going mighty fine, if you ask me.  Well, mostly.  I did have the one cigarette.  You see, when my step dad comes to town, he likes to go hear some good music and grab a few drinks.  What better place to accomplish that than in Nashville, Tennessee, right?  So anyway, on Sunday night, we headed out to Broadway to catch some music, probably at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge.  That's exactly where we ended up, but first we took a stop at The Wheel, another lesser-known honkytonk.  Anyway, this place is alright because you can smoke in there, which was a plus for me in my smoking days.  They have plenty of room to move and nice, clean(ish) bathrooms and a fine beer selection.  We grabbed a couple seats at the bar and ordered a shot and a beer.  After the shot, he pulled out his Camels and I couldn't help myself.  Oh, how I wanted one.  It was right there.  Just one, how could it hurt?

Now, it was this "just one" mentality that torpedoed my previous attempts to quit, and I am well aware of this fact.  But since this time quitting ain't my first rodeo, as they say, I'm better prepared to make it happen this time.  So, knowing that having one is what was the beginning of my downfall last time and I'm better prepared for it now, I know that going for it would be a bad idea, right?  

Nope, I smoked that shit.

I had an expectation of what this cigarette would be like.  It'd be like when you're dying for a smoke, and you're not trying to quit, and those first few drags will be sweet, sweet nectar, relief form the agony of nicotine withdrawals.  Nope.  It sucked.  It was terrible.  It was just horrible.  You'd thing that experiencing this awful smoke would make me butt the thing out right then and there, but no, I finished the thing, because I thought it might improve over time.  Nope.  It just sucked.  And we spent the rest of the night downtown, and I thought about smoking, but didn't because I knew I had a better purpose than that, and it wouldn't be worth it in the long run or short run.  

So, I'd say that it was a successful night.  I'd say I passed, but I didn't get an A.  I got a C+, but I still passed, damn it. And for some reason, I'm having a real hard time this morning.  I think I got a defective patch on, or something.  Ah well, perhaps I'll stop talking about it and see if that helps.  

See you later, dudes.  

Vloggerated: I QUIT pt. 1

Okay so I'm quitting smoking and to make sure I'm not a liar, to myself or anyone else, I'm making videos about it.  Anyway, here's a video.  Enjoy.

Vloggerated: June 15th

Hey you guys!  I made a great new video which you are just gonna love!

Okay, well hopefully you will at least like it...a little bit?

Okay just watch the video.

Collecting Pop Can Tabs

For the past couple months, the wife and I have been saving our pop can tabs, because, well, that's what you do, isn't it?  I remember someone saving their can tabs, maybe Bethany's dad or something?  I don't know, but I knew that it was something that was easy to do and it would benefit someone somehow.  I never really thought about what exactly would happen to those tabs after saving them for a while.

I heard there was something to do with dialysis machines?  Like, they use the tabs to make something for dialysis machines or something?  It was never really clear to me, but just save your tabs, son.  Someone is collecting them to bring to the place where they do dialysis.  Just save them, and give them to people that are collecting them.  Not hard instructions.  

Alright, so a coworker of mine has a collection that is in a constant ongoing thing.  I just pull my tab off and put it a cup, no harm no foul.  But I started thinking about what we do with those tabs at home?  We do nothing with them, so might as well save a used up jar of spaghetti sauce, rinse it out and save our tabs, too.  After all, it's the right thing to do, right?  

So our collection is getting nice and big, about half a jar.  Pretty good for the two of us.  Well I knew that my coworker guy takes them to McDonald's to donate to the Ronald McDonald house.  I thought to myself, there has to be a better place to donate my tabs than to McDonalds.  I looked up where to bring my pull tabs, and that's when I found some sort of shocking information. 

No one collects can tabs for anything other than selling them for scrap. 

 I didn't really think about it before.  I never questioned it.  I just did it, because it really wasn't hard to do.  Apparently, the rumor was that you can donate your tabs to a place that does dialysis, sort of a trade, for a free go on the machine.  I didn't know that was the rumor, but apparently that's what the deal was.  The National Kidney Foundation or whatever has vehemently denied that you can, or ever could do this.  I'm telling you, one quick Google search turns up a whole shitload of results of this myth.  Some even calling it an urban legend.  I can't believe I didn't know this.  

If you do donate tabs to places that you think will accept them, like McDonald's, most of the time they just take them and sell them for scrap and donate the small amount of funds to the Ronald McDonald charity, but it's such a small amount of value, you're way better of just putting your spare change in that little box at the counter when you place your order.  So my collection is just going to get dumped into the aluminum recycling thing when I bring the recycling next time.  Because my collection is nearly worthless.  I guess I could bring them into a McDonald's, but I don't want to look like an idiot that's never heard of this myth, which was actually the truth up until about 8 hours ago.  

Anyway, that's all.  Don't bother pulling off those tabs.  Even that small amount of effort isn't worth anything but a couple bucks.  I think I read somewhere that it would take filling an entire van with tabs to make a hundred bucks.  So yeah, don't bother.  

A New Adventure!

I came here today to tell you good folks that I've started a new blog.  It's called Safety Squeeze, and it's totally dedicated to baseball.  Now, I don't really expect many people to read it, because well, it really won't be all that interesting to most of you guys, but I felt like it would make me happy to write about baseball, so I went ahead and did it.

I love baseball, and I wanted to talk about it, even if I'm only talking to myself.  That's why I created it.  You can find it HERE.

Now, this doesn't mean this space is going away.  I've paid good money for the domain name, and I'm not about to let that go to waste.  No, I promise to continue to write on Bloggerated as much as I feel is necessary, which isn't quite daily, but more likely weekly, or twice a week, like I've been doing.

So does a dad who has a kid who just learned how to crawl going to find time to update TWO blogs?  I don't know.  I hope so, blogging makes me happy.  In the mean time, have a great day, and feel free to check out the other blog if you're interested.  I'll be back very soon with a real update, here on Bloggerated.

Have a sweet day, dudes and dudettes! 

iPhone Won't Connect to 4G? I Have Your Answer

I have an iPhone 4S, and I recently encountered a problem where it wouldn't connect to the AT&T 4G network here in Nashville. It worked fine on WiFi, but it wouldn't load any data over the network. When it happened to my wife a week or so later, I realized that I may not be alone with this problem.  So I figured I'd post something so that if anyone else has this problem, they'll be able to find an answer on the internet, something I failed to find when I searched for answers.

The Solution?  Turn it off and turn it back on again.  Works like a dream.  Simple as that.  In fact, that's a great thing to do for any weird thing your iPhone may be doing.  With no real on/off switch on the iPhone, it's probably on for long stretches of time.  Turning it off and on every once in a while is a good idea to keep the thing running good. 

So I hope you found you're answer to why your iPhone isn't working right. 

 Have a great day!  

The Second Bowl of Cereal Always Sucks

I like cereal.  I mean, don't we all like cold cereal at least a little bit?  I like to think so.  Anyway, I like cereal so much, sometimes I want to have a second bowl of cereal.  And you know what?  It sucks every time.

I eat the one bowl and it's tasty, but then I'm like, "you know, I should have gotten a bigger bowl."  Now I'm done, but I'm not finished, if you know what I mean.  So I'm like, okay, I'll just get another bowl of cereal, and it's all super crunchy and dry.  I don't remember the last bowl I just had being this crunchy and dry like this one.

Your cereal gets gradually soggy in the first bowl, but you don't really notice as it happens.  When you get that second bowl, it just seems so much more crunchy than the first bowl ever was.   Like, there is no way that first bowl was this crunchy at first, is there?  But yes, it was, but you just didn't realize.  I mean, it came from the same box, right?

So what I'm trying to say is, I don't believe that it is the same crunchiness.  I believe there is something or someone going into that box of cereal and fortifying your cereal's wall structure, making it more sturdy, and crunchy.  That's why I never buy fortified cereals.  They're just crunchier than regular cereals.

No, that's a terrible joke.  Forget that part.

Anyway, all I'm trying to say is the second bowl of cereal is always terrible, or at the very least, not nearly as good as the initial bowl was, and at best, it's just kinda tearing up the roof of your mouth.  But that first bowl wasn't doing that. So the lesson here is to get one big ass bowl of cereal, and don't go for seconds.