Austin Massachusetts

I crack you up

austinmassachusetts — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:27:28 +0000

If there’s one gene I was not born with, it’s the egg-cracking proficiency gene. I’ve never been able to routinely crack an egg well, nor do I think I ever will. With my first contact, I either tap the egg too softly, or I smash it too hard. By the time I get the egg out of it’s protective covering, the shell is in about 25 different pieces. I don’t always end up with shell pieces in the eggs, but about a third of the time I’m fishing them out. I’ve always used a fork to crack eggs open, and since that had not been working well for me over the past 15 years, I tried my hand at a knife and even the side of a bowl. But alas, none of these methods work well for me. Oh well. There could be worse genes to be born without. (No funny examples are coming to mind, so I’ll leave you with that open-ended thought.)

B-Ball Update

austinmassachusetts — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 05:34:38 +0000

It is now about two hours later and Syracuse just wrapped up a 127-117 victory after 6 overtime periods. What a game! (I’m glad regulation time ended the way it did, otherwise I wouldn’t have witnessed this unbelievable 70 minute game.)

Disclaimer: I’m a Cuse fan, so I’m very happy about the result.

24,000 tenths of a second

austinmassachusetts — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:20:42 +0000

That’s the length of a college basketball game (without overtime). Each of those tenths of a second is as important as every other one. Let’s take a look back at tonight’s Syracuse-UConn game.

With Cuse up 71-69, UConn drives down the floor and nets a basket with 1.1 seconds remaining to tie up the game. Cuse calls a timeout to strategize about their upcoming inbound. Cuse heaves the ball down the court, it deflects off of a UConn player, the clock starts ticking, Devendorf (Cuse player) grabs the ball and makes an unbelievable jump shot with no time left on the clock. An amazing buzzer-beater for the Orangement!

Not so fast. The refs look back at the replay and determine the clock read 0.0 seconds when Devendorf released the ball. So we’re off to overtime.

I agree with this call. It was indeed correct. BUT, if we’re going to scrutinize this very last play of regulation, why wasn’t the second to last play of the game scrutinized. I rewound the game and determined there was actually 1.3 seconds left when the ball went thru the hoop on UConn’s tying basket. The fact that Syracuse called a timeout after this play means there was plenty of time for the officiating crew to review the correct time to be placed on the clock for the beginning of the next play. With 1.3 seconds left, Devendorf would have got the winning shot off with 0.1 seconds left, giving Cuse the win.

In my opinion, the officials made a huge error by not reviewing the clock during the timeout. And the worst part is that this error will go unnoticed by most people. It will not be discussed by Sportscenter tomorrow morning, regardless of the outcome of the game. (It is currently in the 2nd overtime as I write this…And now 2nd OT is over and a third is to start.)

Every tenth of a second is important in sporting events. The fact that sometimes we only review the last 11 of them, but not the last 13, demonstrates how arbitrary reviews are in sports.

Did I really just eat all of that?

austinmassachusetts — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:33:30 +0000

I thoroughly enjoy Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel, but every time I watch Adam take on a monstrous challenge, it feels as though I was the one that just consumed enormous amounts of food.

Random thoughts about the show:

-Best part of the show are Adam’s cheesy play-on-words

-Does Adam work out a lot in order to be able to eat all of that food? He doesn’t look like he’s in great shape, but he’s not fat either. I’m just confused.

-On his non-working days, does Adam normally eat a lot, or does he eat very minimally?

-How do I get a job traveling and eating for a living?

An Apple a day does not keep Dr. Seuss away

austinmassachusetts — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:14:40 +0000

Am I the only Apple-loving person out there who can’t stand the iPhone commercials? I love my Powerbook; I love my iPod; if I owned an iPhone, I would love that too. But I strongly dislike the commercials for it. I find the voiceover guy, in addition to sounding condescending, just plain annoying. Plus the music on the commercials really bothers me.

I love the Mac vs. PC commercials with Justin Long. I love Apple’s print advertising for iPods found everywhere, such as subway stations. But the iPhone commercials I do not like. I will not watch them in my house. I will not watch them with the click of my mouse. I will not watch them, Sam-I-am.

42-car pileup? Hilarious!

austinmassachusetts — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:16:13 +0000

You ever read the Onion online for a little bit of time? Maybe your enjoying your lunch hour perusing the many humorous and satirical pieces of writing. And then you see one more headline saying “42 car-pileup; 18 Dead in Nebraska.” You’re not quite sure what makes it funny, but you start laughing because of the ridiculousness of it and everything else on the website, so you click on the link. That’s when the link takes you to an actual real and serious story on CNN.com, and you realize that you’re a horrible person for initially laughing at such a tragic story. Yah, this happens to me just about every time I’m surfing the Onion site.

Discoveries

austinmassachusetts — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:22:30 +0000

Below are a few discoveries I’ve made over the past few days that I feel like sharing:

Music: Coldplay – Viva La Vida – great album as I’m sure many of you already know, but I finally got around to listening to it.

Movie: Half Nelson – watched it on Sundance Channel’s free OnDemand list. It was nominated for Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize in 2006. (No, it’s not about wrestling; it’s about a drug-addicted teacher.)

Web: playlist.com – infinitely better than pandora. You can choose just about any song and listen to it when you want and create playlists, all for free and legal (it sounds like agreements are worked out with the different record labels).

TV: Monk – a show I always wanted to watch, but never had. I finally caught a few episodes, and the life of the obsessive-compulsive detective, played by Tony Shalhoub, is quite humorous.

Home: no avocado rinds in the garbage disposal – they may clog your disposal or pipes.

Where shall I start?

austinmassachusetts — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:04:43 +0000

When eating out in restaurants, I’ve noticed most people’s first bite (off of their entree plate) is of a side item. What’s the reason behind it? Delayed gratification? After the first bite, the population splits though. There are those who go back and forth between entree and sides. And then there are those who do not mix and match. They finish one side, move on to another side, and only after completing that second side, move onto the entree. Or maybe they go one side, the entree, and the other side. Of course there are also the people that go straight to the entree right off the bat, but they’re a whole other breed. I wonder if these eating habits correlate to any personality traits. If you have any insight to this, please let me know.

Could looks be deceiving?

austinmassachusetts — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:28:13 +0000

I don’t eat fast food very often, but I do think the food always looks so delicious in the commercials. Taco Bell? I’ve never eaten there, nor will I ever, but those cruncheweesy items (or whatever they are called) look mad good on tv. McD’s and BK? Their burgers look oh so flavorful. KFC? It appears finger-licking good.

But these ads for the new P’zone from Pizza Hut? I don’t think it looks desirable in the least bit. It may indeed taste great, but I have to turn my head from the tv whenever it is shown. But marketing execs for America’s best pizza chain need not worry. It’s probably just me, and as previously stated, I’m not a big consumer of fast food.

Save your phone

austinmassachusetts — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:32:20 +0000

The day after Thanksgiving in the year 2006, I bought a new cellphone, replacing my original one. I brought home my old phone, not sure what to do with it. I figured I should keep it because it might help out at some point in the future, though I wasn’t sure how it help. At the very least, it would be a backup of my contacts up to that point in time. So I threw the phone in my drawer and never looked at or thought about it again.

Fast forward one and a half years. I’ve just jumped into the pool, refreshing myself on a hot day. Thinking how great the water feels, I then realize my phone was unknowingly in my pocket. I hurry to get it out of the water, and my friends advise taking the battery out as soon as possible and letting it dry completely out before placing it back in the phone.

The next day, after giving the battery and phone sufficient time to dry, I power up the phone. Alright! It powers on. I guess I got lucky. Or not. None of the keys work except for the power key. I come to realize that all I can do is receive calls. I can’t navigate the menu, make calls, send texts, or read texts. But then a few days later, out of nowhere, the buttons start working. I guess I really am lucky! Nope. A week later, the buttons stop working and again all I can do is receive calls.

This morning I go to the Verizon store. They can’t fix the phone, so I need to buy a new phone, but I haven’t reached my 2-year date where I can purchase a new phone at a discount. Then the Verizon associate asks me if I have an old phone, because I could just activate that one. But alas I do not. Wait a minute! Yes, I do. The old one that I kept for some odd reason. And that my friends is why you should save your old cellphones. You never know when it will come in handy.