A Man Without a Size.

So I went to Marshalls today to do some shopping. I haven't been to a Marshalls in years, but fond a gift card while cleaning out my car so figured hey, why not. Needless to say, I left with nothing, and don't know when I'll be back.

I'm a big guy, but not THAT big. Over the years my waist has gone from a 34 to a 44. I'm not proud of that fact, but that's the way I am. I'm also fairly tall. The regular section of Marshalls ends with 40's and a few 42's. I pick threw items to make sure that they are the right sizes and nothing got mixed up, and I'm left with nothing. As I'm about to leave the store, I see a Big and Tall section. I see a ring showing a size 50 so I figure I'm in luck.

Wrong again. Big and Tall starts at 46. I'm not kidding. I look up and down the racks, and find NOTHING. I end up asking someone and they, without prodding said that Big and Tall sizes start at a 46 waist. I ask what about regular sizes, do they go to 44. They responded, in a straight face 42. I asked what happened to size 44 and they just shrugged me off.

I guess this is more motiviation for me to work harder to lose weight. I'd be happy at a 36.

Going back

This weekend I was given the chance to go back to my college. It's changed a little bit, it's modernized, but it's basically the same. The bars have changed scenes, and I miss the bar that we all used to be able to chill in. What I don't miss (and this is a true sign that I've gotten old) are very drunk people.

There was a fairly large group of us ranging from 30-45 hanging out in the one area. There was a very drunk young lady who was stumbling around in heels. She ended up stumbling into one of the guys in our group and he shrugged it off and went to the bar, and she started chatting up one of the other guys (Who very well may be a 40 year old virgin). It was all harmless when this guy who also was drunk came over and grabbed her away and started yelling at us for stealing his girl.

He was obviously drunk and obnoxious. No one was stealing his girl. Hell, no one really wanted anything to do with her, she just wandered over to us. Later in the night, her boyfriend was off talking to some other girl, and the original drunk girl -- still drinking -- came back our way apparently. I say apparently because I had my back to her, talking to friends. Next thing I know I'm getting goosed. I turn around trying to figure out what the hell is going on and I see her there staring at me giggling. How come that never happened to me while I was in college?

Say it aint so Joe...

So apparently Joe the Plumber is neither named Joe or a plumber. Here is unedited video of his exchange with Senator Obama. Think he was a plant?




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It all seems a little fishy to me. I can't say 100%, but it sure seems like he was a plant. I'm amazed at the time and discussion that took place between the two men. That is what elections should be like. Civil discussions, working things out- open dialogue with candidates.

A scary website....

http://palinaspresident.com/

Baseball Rant

We're on the cusp of having exactly what Fox doesn't want- a Tampa Bay/Phillies World Series. I'm not sure it's going to be as much of a ratings stinker as everyone fears, but I can guarantee you it won't be as good as the Boston/Cubs match up they were drooling over, or the Boston/Dodgers tilt they'd take as second choice.

At least once they get to the world series, it'll be played sensibly. It'll be a 2-3-2 format with the only off days scheduled as the travel days. What they've done to the post season is laughable, and a gmae changer. I'm ok with the Wildcard. I think that it has brought some excitement in to baseball, and the Brewers into the post season this year. I'm not a fan of the 5 game series, but again, I can accept it. What I don't like is the off days that they have scheduled in the first two rounds. It's not how baseball is played. These guys are used to playing 6 days a week. To have them play 2 games, day off(travel), play 2 games, day off, play 1 game, day off (travel), play 2 games is absurd. They should only be off for the travel days. I know that it was done to get more games in primetime, but so what. Most of the games have actually been OUT of primetime because of their length. Think about it- you could have had a 4pm start in the NLCS yesterday, a nice 1p game in LA, and then transition to the ALCS.

Fox/MLB is actually threatened with not having any MLB games this weekend if both series end in 5 games. Pretty unbelieveable, huh?

Voter Apathy

I admit it. I have not been registered to vote in NJ since I moved back in 2004. I know. I'm a bad person. I should vote in every election, not just the Presidential Elections, and I will. In 2004, I voted absentee in PA, and I only voted on the Presidential ticket, nothing else.

Today, October 14th is the last day to register to vote in NJ. Those of you who know me have already figured out where this is going. Yes, I waited until today to hand in my voter registration. I went to records office at City Hall in my town today around 2pm. I know what you're thinking- It was a mad house- like a post office on April 15th or a mall on Black Friday. That's what I was expecting at least.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. There was no one there. No lines. No anarchy. I just handed my form to the nice lady behind the counter, she verified my address with my drivers license and I was done. Considering where I live, and the number of people who have to be new to the area because of all the new units, I was expecting a lot more. Perhaps the rest of the population isn't like me and doesn't wait until the last minute, but somehow I doubt that. I think that I was witnessing apathy in motion.

It's the Economy Stupid

If you remember James Carville's famous line- It's the economy, stupid. Carville used that to keep the Governor Clinton on message against President George H. W. Bush. At that point, the economy was in a recession. G H W Bush didn't want to admit that the economy was in a recession. He thought everything was going fine. It was obvious to everyone else that it was not.

Unfortunately I agree with Marc Farber in saying that the bailout plan will fail. His thoughts on it are here. The fundamentals of this plan are flawed. We're going to essentially just print more money in order to back this. I think a big reason for this problem is the fact that there was actually nothing backing a lot of the poor lending decisions made by banks, meaning they didn't actually have enough assets to cover everything if things defaulted (or went bad). They were supposed to take out insurance on this, and a lot of them did, but those insurance policies weren't backed by anything. All of this was essentially done with Monopoly money.

If I understand what I heard this morning correctly, the FDIC is increasing it's insurance limits to restore peoples confidence. It's also insuring some of this bank debt. Guess what, it has nothing but the US Government behind it, so basically, we're in the same boat. There will be this insurance, but it is meaningless because not everyone can actually cash in if it should all fail.

Wall Street has been compared to Las Vegas by John McCain. Unfortunately, Las Vegas is better regulated. As anyone who saw Oceans Eleven or the TV Show Las Vegas casinos must have enough cash on hand in order to cover all bets on the floor and all chips that are out. The money can't be at the bank. It can't be in investments. It has to be on the physical premises of the casino. A casino can't simply make more chips if it needs to cover something. There has to be something behind the chips.

Perhaps Wall Street can learn something from Vegas.

An Opportunity for Relevance

This political season, people have the opportunity to make a difference. Everyone does. Everyone will be able to be relevant. That's not what this entry is about. This is about Saturday Night Live.

SNL was once a bastion of political humor, satire and veiled socially relevant commentary. SNL was the original "Must See TV". I didn't get a chance to watch it's first few years as I was too young, and I didn't understand the next 5 years. When I started watching was the end of it's Glory days, but was it good. It made me want more. As I got older, I watched the original SNL shows and they were damn funny, but they also made you think.

SNL has the publics attention. Tina Fey has gotten everyones attention, and has made SNL must download tv for now. It's up to the regular cast and writers to pick up the torch, take advantage of their new found audience and become relevant again.

Election Thoughts

Am I the only one who is getting tired of the presidential campaign? Some thoughts about it-

First, when John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, in my opinion he made what was the biggest mistake of his campaign. It was at that moment, that he sold out. He didn't pick the person who would make the best vice president, he picked the person who he thought would give him the best chance at getting elected, and it's working.

The weekend that the selection was announced, C and I talked and she was excited. She said that for the first time, she was enthused about the Republican ticket (she's a registered republican. It was a sexy pick, an offbeat pick, dare I say a maverick pick for Vice President.

McCain compromised his principles ("I'd rather lose and election than lose a war") because this pick was to win the election. Do you think the campaign thoroughly vetted Palin as a candidate? It's tough to find a running mate. I'll give you that. It's especially tough to keep a person that you thoroughly researched a secret today. I honestly wonder if McCain knew about Bristol's pregnancy before he announced Palin. Speaking about the kids- Shouldn't they have been in school a lot more than they have been?

There were so many better choices for running mates that would have helped to get my vote. Sarah Palin was not that choice. John McCain lost any chance of me voting for him (and yes, there was a chance) when he picked Sarah Palin.

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I am sick and tired of finger pointing. I don't want to hear about what your opponent did and or didn't do. I want to hear you talk about you. I want to know what you did or what you are going to do. I don't want the negative campaigning. This whole tearing the other person down and pointing out their flaws and shortcomings isn't what the electoral process was supposed to be about.

Things are different now than when the founding fathers came up with the election process. Back then campaigning was done city by city, and news was weeks old, not seconds old. The candidates didn't go under the same microscope that exists now. There isn't a perfect person. Some of our best Presidents were far from perfect. People just didn't know then.

I'm talking about BOTH parties here. They're both atrocious. In watching the debates, that's all you hear about- Why you shouldn't vote for the other guy. Not why you should vote for the person. Speaking of debates, I think that the candidates need to answer the questions that are asked. I think something should happen to the candidate if the don't answer the question. Electric shock collars come to mind. Perhaps air the debate on a delay, and just have tone come out until the candidate actually answers the question at hand.
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now my mom didn't see this interview. She only saw the SNL version of it. My mom said that she felt bad for Palin and felt like Tina Fey was picking on her. I tried to explain to her how bad the original interview was, and that the sad thing is, the SNL Version was almost WORD FOR WORD from the original interview. Here, a split screen showing what I'm talking about.



Sad, huh?

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Finally, I know I brought up politics here and I apologize. You should never bring up politics or religion in casual conversation. There is no correct answer to either. To suggest that there is is asinine. For someone to suggest that there view is the correct one is a sure sign of ignorance. I work with plenty of people who's ideas and ideologies I do not agree with. When they do bring up such subjects (I never will as I know you should never bring such topics up as they are so divisive) I listen and don't respond with what they want me to. I try and learn from their opinions. I try to understand where they are coming from. I do not need to be converted. I do not need to be called stupid or dumb. I will make up my own mind and make what I feel is the best decision. In the end, if the person who I vote for doesn't win, I will say "I didn't vote for the man, but he's my President" and will support him to the best of my ability. Unfortunately, I can not say that about our current administration.

Fair and Balanced

The other day I was stuck in an airport. OK, in all reality I didn't wake up in time for my flight, and had to wait for the next flight. In the corner of the airport that I was at, Fox News Channel was on and I couldn't believe my ears. The news itself was presented with a slant. Trust me on this- This is something I have a background in and I know of what I speak.

I know that the perception is that Fox News is the Republican's channel, MSNBC is the Democrat's channel and CNN is straight down the middle. I've worked for NBC News (and MSNBC by proxy) and have always felt that their NEWS is presented objectively, without a slant or opinion coming through. When you would watch their primetime shows (Olbermann, Matthews for starters) that those COMMENTARY shows have a left wing slant to them. They are just that COMMENTARY shows. They're supposed to have a slant. I'll defend Fox News Channel's O'Rielly, Hannity and Combs on the same ground. A reasonably minded individual is watching that program for commentary, not hard news.

The newsreader was talking about the bailout bill that The House had just defeated, and EVERYTHING he was saying had a slant to it. This was breaking news, and instead of reporting what happened "Fair and Balanced" as they claim to be, the newsreader, reading off a Telepromter was assigning blame. He wasn't saying that person XYZ said it was the democrats fault, he said that the bill failed because of Nancy Pelosi. He didn't mention that Senator McCain had promised a certain number of votes, and couldn't produce them.

On MSNBC at the same time (I was able to watch via my Slingbox), they were saying that McCain didn't deliver the number of republicans he promised AND that several people were saying (and they had names of people) that it may have been because of Nancy Pelosi's speech.

I guess Fair and Balanced depends on your point of view.

Outsider looking In

I've been bad at blogging again lately, but it's not for a lack of things to say. I've been exhausted for no good reason lately so the time I've spent on airplanes I've used to sleep, and not write. Hopefully this flight will be different.

This one has ties back to my honesty writing from a while back. Over the past few months I've had the chance to meet/go out with 2 couples where I was friends with the female member, and have two totally different opinions of the state of their relationships. I'll preface this by saying these were both one time meetings, so this is all based on first impressions and only one meeting, but also takes into account other things my friends have said.

The one couple has a set of challenges all their own. Between travel and family obligations, I imagine that at first they had an uphill battle. Seeing this couple together, you can tell that they are into each other. They have that way of interaction between them that you can tell they are happy together. It's that special bond.

I can tell they're in love because of the little things that they do for each other. Going above and beyond to make the most of the time that they have together. I think we all (me especially with my schedule) can take a lesson from them. I wish you could see what I see. It really makes you feel good about relationships.

The second couple I feel differently about. I think that there is a lot of settling going on. From my one meeting, there seemed to be no chemistry and a general lack of communication.

As I said above, I could have been there on a bad day. My presence there didn't help the situation I'm sure. It seems that there is no compromise that takes place. Again, I only hear one side of the story, and I haven't been forthcoming with my opinions here for the reasons above. I really wish another friend of hers who I am friends with would meet him (Hasn't happened yet, but they've been together for over a year) and put my thoughts to rest. I hope I am wrong. I hope that they are happy together, and what I saw was an anomaly, but I fear it's not.

I'm pretty sure both couples met through online dating sites. I've tried my luck at it and haven't had much success. Off the top of my head though, I know at least 3 couples that met and married through them. It makes me wonder what we as a society would be doing if it weren't for online dating sites. I guess going back to the bar scene? I mean how did people used to meet?