Ernie Harwell Dies

Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell knew when to let the game tell the story. Vin Scully does the same. Joe Buck should follow their example and shut the fuck up once in a while.

Things That Piss Me Off (Lately)

Dumbing Down
- Back in the months following the September 11th attacks on the WTC, anthrax was all the rage. For the first few days of furious coverage, they referred to a particular form of anthrax properly – as subcutaneous anthrax. Then someone somewhere decided the Amurcan public was too fucking stupid to a) know what that meant; and b) Use a dictionary. So they started referring to it as under-the-skin anthrax.
- Commercials lately have stopped using the word “antacid.” They now use the term “acid reducer.”
- Kyra Phillips, of CNN, was reading some dude’s quote and changed the word he used (abhor) to despise. WTF?

Google
- Have you ever clicked one of the links in the list of search results on Google, only to be taken to the results of a search for the same word on another web site’s search engine? Yesterday I was looking for something on Google. I typed the word in the appropriate field and clicked on SEARCH. I then clicked on a link a few lines down and was taken to a site where I was presented with “I’m sorry, your search did not find any results. Please try again.” WTF?!
- Buckling to pressure and changing the results of search queries based on whining and politics.

Joe Buck
- This sports commentator is the epitome of mediocrity. I hate listening to the guy. He blathers on non-stop, as if only to hear himself talk. What this dunce needs to realize is that much of a football or baseball game can speak for itself. I don’t need to hear the forced (and lame) humor, and talk about shit no one fucking cares about. Joe needs to realize there’s a time to talk and a time to shut the fuck up. He also needs to go back to school in a remedial grammar class.

San Antonio Drivers
Perhaps the worst I’ve ever encountered:
- Don’t know how to use blinkers.
- Drive around with their emergency flashers on for no apparent reason. WTF is up with this? I’ve never seen it as much as I have here.
- Drive side-by-side on a two-lane highway under the speed limit, while the line of cars builds up behind them. Without a care in the world.
- Can’t drive in anything other than perfect weather – except for a few dumbasses who are at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and drive 30MPH over the limit in a sleet storm.
- People completely oblivious to their surroundings.

Microsoft Word 2003/2007
- After every update, you go back to the Reading Layout View, which sucks. Seriously – does anyone leave it at this default?
- Ditto for “auto-format as you type.” Why do I need someone to tell me when I want automatically bulleted lists. Take this blog post, for example. I had to turn off auto-format to get it not to bulletize and indent!
- (2007 only) When I press ENTER in my keyboard, I want to go to the next fucking line, not two lines below!

Blogger
- They really need to improve how images are uploaded and organized in a post. It sucks.
- Ditto for the space they give you to type and edit a blog post – it sucks.

Vibrant In-Text Ads (and their ilk)
- You see web pages with words that have colored lines below them (dotted, single, double, etc). You simply slide your cursor over the top of the word as you aim for a link, and a fucking ad pops up. Is there any way to turn off that shit?

And finally – My job
- It’s just too much work for too few people, and it sucks. I was supposed to move to a different (better) section, but that’s been postponed due to budget and other staffing issues. Bastards.

Sigh….

Movie Day

Saturday The Boy and I went to see Zombieland. I enjoyed the movie a great deal, as did he. Woody Harrelson was great. Emma Stone was fabulous. Jesse Eisenberg was funny, quick, and a very good actor. I'd seen him in something before, but couldn't remember where. The movie was funny and had a good pace. The special effects were good, as were the one-liners. I'd see it again.

After the movie, we went out for pizza at Dough Pizzeria - The Boy's suggestion. It was superb.

It was a good day, to say the least. In two weeks he and I are going to Austin to see some live music. We'll stay the night and come back Saturday afternon.

And today? A lazy, lazy day sitting around with Shelley watching football and snoozing. I went to the store, gave the NYT crossword a whirl, made some Roquefort dressing, napped, and am now sipping a bourbon.

Watching football on Fox is an exercise in patience. Joe Buck is just about the most irritating sports announcer working today. The guy yaps just to hear himself yap, even when he has absolutely nothing to offer the viewer. On top of that, his grammar is atrocious. Some of his more bothersome (to me anyway) habits:

• Instead of saying "The way he passes," he'll say, "The way in which he passes."

• Instead of saying "That pass went a litle farther than he wanted," he'll say, "That pass went a litle farther than what he wanted."

Joe buck needs to take a broadcast lesson from someone like Vin Scully. There's a time to talk and a time to shut the fuck up and let the viewers watch the damned game, Joe.

Saturday

The week is mercifully over. The week is also over for Tim Russert. What a shame. I really enjoyed watching him on Meet the Press. That there was such an outpouring of grief and admiration from people across the entire political spectrum says a hell of a lot about the guy. Obviously I didn’t know him, but it was so apparent that he was a decent, fair, intelligent, insightful person who didn’t pander. And ya can’t say that about too many people in broadcast media today.

Jim McKay also died recently. Anyone who grew up watching sports and the Olympics in the 70s and 80s knows who he is. Anyone who remembers “The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat” knows him.

What I want to know is who replaces people like these when they die? Nancy Grace? Joe Buck? Pfft….

Fat Boy
On a more positive note, I’ve lost fifteen pounds over the last month-and-a-half or so. If I do another fifteen I’ll be okay with that. I don’t have any aspirations to get down to what I was when I was in my twenties or thirties…but I’m gonna do what I can without denying myself good food :-)

I’ve Been De-Flowered!
FlyinFox became the first person to ever tag me with a meme after three years of blogging. I won’t promise it’ll be funny, but it’s here.

Quote of the Day
"Afghanistan is the most daring and ambition mission in the history of NATO." — George W. Bush - Bucharest, Romania, April 2, 2008