Know What I'm Sayin'??

SpeedRant!

2009-08-21T12:31:00.001-04:00

I don't have much time, but I have a few comments about New Jersey/New York.

How can a state that is ETERNALLY cloudy be known as the Garden State? We really need a better nickname, folkz.

"Twp" is a terrible abbreviation for "Township".

What the hell is a Township, anyway?

I know the real reason everybody takes the subway instead of driving. It's the roads. This place has the worst roads I have ever seen. Anything less than an F-150, and you're rockin' and rollin'.

I also may have figured out why this place looks some ramshackle to me. This is it: Land is expensive, so space is at a premium, and people want to make the most of their land. The result is a bunch of buildings right up against each other. In Atlanta, they're a lot more apt to put a little strip of green between themselves. The result here is that everything looks a bit disjointed.

Me to the Avis bus guy: "Can I have a map?"
ABG: "You'll have to get one at the gate on your way out."
Me to the Avis Gate Guy: "Can I have a map?"
AGG: "I don't have any. You'll have to get one at the office."

Sigh. Nevermind.

This rant sounded a bit more...ranty...last night when I was driving, but it was 1:something in the morning and I prioritized.

Twp IS a terrible abbreviation though.

Here’s a summary of something that you can smile about .

2009-05-27T16:29:00.001-04:00

I've been coming across songs that speak to me lately...

Smiley Face by Gnarls Barkley

But what did you do
What did you say
Oh did you walk or did you run away
Where are you now
Where have you been
Did you go alone or did you bring a friend

I need to know this
Cause I notice
You smiling
Out in the sun
Having fun
And Feeling free

And I can tell you know how hard this life can be
But you keep on smiling for me

So what went right
What went wrong
Was it a story or was it a song
Was it over night
Or did it take you long
Was knowing your weakness what made you strong

Or all the above
Oh how I love to see you smiling
An oh yeah
Take a little pain just incase

You need something warm to embrace
To help you put on a smilin face
Face
Smiley face

Don’t you go off into the new day with any doubt
Here’s a summary of something that you can smile about
Say for instance, my girlfriend, she bugs me all the time
But the irony of it all is that she loves me all the time
Oh see

I wanna be you whenever I see you smiling
Because its easily one of the hardest things to do
Your worries and fear become your friends
And they end up smiling at you
Put on a smiling face

Sing it, Brother.

2009-05-23T04:54:00.000-04:00

"Lean on Me", performed by Bill Withers

Sometimes in our lives we all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tomorrow

Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you don't let show

Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me

So just call on me brother, when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'd understand
We all need somebody to lean on

Lean on me when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

Lean on me...

MY Mother's Day

2009-05-11T00:06:00.003-04:00

So today I was driving around, and thinking about Mother's Day.
I'm not really satisfied with it. At all.

A couple of reasons:

Why should I let society tell me when to recognize and celebrate my Mother?
What's so special about the second Sunday in May?
If I'm honoring my Mother on that day, then who's going to look after her Mother? Somebody is gonna get neglected at least a little bit.

So...in MY house, this is how we're gonna do it, and why:

Let's examine. Who is your Mother? The one who gave birth to you. Okay. So the center of it all is your birth. Okay. Well, your birthday is already celebrated, and it's all about you, not your Mother. In fact, many folkz DEMAND to be coddled and honored on their birthday, right? Do we usually pause on our birthday to say "Thank You" to our Mothers for bringing us into this world? No.

So this is what we're going to do, at least next year: We're gonna celebrate the day that Motherhood happened in our house. To not get in the way of standard birthday festivities, we're gonna celebrate Mother's day on the day BEFORE MiniMau's birthday.

We're gonna do flowers. Dinner. There WILL be a card.

Know what else? This year, on the day before MY birthday, I'm gonna call my Mother, and thank her for carrying me for those 9 months, and thank her for being cut from *here* to *here* for me. On the day before my wife's birthday, I'm going to call her Mother and thank her for giving birth to my wonderful wife. Get the picture?

For each friend who I'm close enough to remember their birthday, I'm close enough to recognize that that person wouldn't be my friend without their Mother.

Mother's Day.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Not even in U.S. of A.

2009-03-03T15:47:00.000-05:00

You have got to be kidding me!

Here's the article, but a brief synopsis:

A Georgia Department of Natural Resources officer finds a pile of discarded household items on private property. (Unlawful dumping.) While he's going through the debris, he finds an envelope of U.S. Savings Bonds AND a Diamond Watch AND a very nice pair of earrings.

He also finds an old envelope with a name and address. He goes to the address and finds the home of George and Mary Morris. George has passed away, and Mary is in an assisted living facility. It appears that relatives are looking after the house and according to them, the Savings Bonds were thought lost when the house was burglarized. He gives the family the savings bonds, and makes it a point to give the diamond watch and earrings to Mrs. Morris himself.

My thing is this: The article doesn't address how the household items got there in the first place. It kinda implies that they could have been taking during the "burglary" but not really. You're telling me that if I put the envelope with my mother's nest egg in a trash bag, along with her antique diamond watch and her vintage earrings, and just leave it at some in-the-cut ranch, that I may get lucky enough that Officer Friendly here will find my "trash" and return it to me? Knock on my door and say "I'm here to serve, sir. You dropped this. Have a nice life."?

Hell naw. I'll say it: That kind of stuff just doesn't happen to Black people. Even in the AoO. (Age of Obama)

Know What I'm Sayin'??

YGtG 1: A Pimp Named...

2009-02-16T00:08:00.002-05:00

According to Blogger, I drafted this on 7/11/06. It's a post that I never quite finished. Who knows why? Whether you think it was going in a good direction or not, I felt pretty good about it at the time! Enjoy.

A while back, I mentioned that I was reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu, and that I'd be sharing my thoughts and such on the book.

I'm still going to do that, but before I do that, I'm going to start my own tome, The Art of Pimping, by Iceberg Slim.

I read Iceberg Slim's Pimp a few years ago. Chock full of sage words, I must say. I'll go back to that one and see what there is to learn from it. Right now I'm on The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim. I will most probably renumber the rules in The Art of Pimping later, but for now, here you go:

1. Suffering is inevitable and necessary for an aspiring pimp, pickpocket or con man...
2. Sympathy is a counterfeit emotion for suckers which is usually offered with a crooked con grin of amused contempt and rejected with a spittled snarl.
3. All of the countless whores I have known and those I have controlled revealed a hunger for notoriety and for punishment, psychic or physical or both. The phony glamour and cruelty of the pimp fill these needs and are the magnets tht attract and hold the whore to the pimp.

You get the gist!

New Series Alert: You Get the Gist

2009-02-16T00:05:00.002-05:00

I realize that it's been a while since I've posted, and let's just say I've been busy. I'm not even going to apologize, because I've been legitimately busy, rather than simply slacking off.

At any rate, anyone who is disappointed at my lack of an apology is about to get even pissier. No really NEW content, but rather, old content that I never posted.

The "You Get the Gist" series will be posts that I started one day, and for some reason or another, never posted. You never know how they'll end. They may end coherently, or they may end in mid-sentence. Who knows.

Let's see how it goes.

Story: "What's that Sound?"

2008-07-16T22:55:00.002-04:00

So, a couple of weeks ago, Mrs. Mau and I took Mini Mau to see his Great-Grandmothers (That's all we have left.) Luckily, Mrs. Mau is from Augusta, GA, and my family is from North Augusta, SC (right across the state line, and the river), so we were able to kill two birds.

So, we're at my Grandmother's place. She lives in one of those apartment complexes for senior citizens? Right. One of those.

So, we're in there, and I hear this beep.

"What's that beep?" I say.

"What beep?" Says Grandma.

"I just heard a beep."
This is where it becomes a good story.

Grandma says: "Your mother was here a week or two ago, and she said she heard a beep, too. I ain't heard no beep."

Me: "Well, has anyone else heard it?"

"No. Ain't nobody else heard it."

A little background here. My father's family is from North Augusta, so that means that no less than FIVE of my aunts and uncles are probably back and forth through my Grandma's place on a regular basis. Perhaps even daily. And NONE of them have heard the beep.

So, during the time I'm there, I hear the beep several more times, and each time, I mention it. Maybe 15 minutes between beeps. My wife could hear it. My aunt that came by during our visit - couldn't hear it.

Epilogue

So...a week or two later, my parents, or maybe just my Mom, visit us.

My Mom says to me: "You heard that beeping at your Grandmother's house?"

"Yeah! I heard it a few times! Grandma said that you could hear it too. I was busy with Mini Mau, so I couldn't really look around for it, but it sounded like it was coming from the corner. Maybe even from next door."

This is what my mother tells me: Apparently, after both I AND my mother heard beeping, she decided there just might be something amiss. She called maintenance. The maintenance guy came. HE heard the beeping.

Okay, the beeping sounded like it was coming from right around her favorite spot to sit. Maybe even coming from somewhere on my Grandma. Now to eliminate possibilities. They took my grandmother outside. Still heard the beeping inside. Okay. One possibility eliminated.

Okay. Eliminate more. They cut the power to her unit. Still heard the beeping.

Still 15-20 minutes between beeps. So at this point, I'm thinking they were at it for the better part of the day.

Turns out that the beeping was coming from a prescription bottle. The beeping is to remind my grandmother to take her medication. Not to say that the pharmacist, or the physician didn't explain the bottle properly, but my grandmother is 95 years old! When it was all said and done, she seemed to remember the doctor mentioning something about a timer on the bottle, but that little 30 second tutorial clearly wasn't enough.

I'm glad I got my hearing from my mother's side of the family.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

R.I.F.: Shibboleth

2008-07-03T22:19:00.004-04:00

Reading is Fundamental

I like to think that I'm a pretty bright M.F. One thing I think has helped with that is that I read a lot. More importantly, I read a lot during the formative years. A great side-affect of all that reading is that I've got a pretty decent vocabulary. It's not often that I come across a word I don't know, or at least can't comfortably figure out via context clues.

Well, today I was stumped, ladies and gentlemen.

I was reading this post on the Ideafestival website. The post talks about a magazine article, which discusses a book that submits a theory about video games being engaging, engrossing, entertaining, and perhaps even intellectual because they force players to solve complex logic and reasoning problems and players may even end up employing the scientific method in their quest to complete a game...rather than just being a mindless slack-jawed waste of time. It's a pretty decent read.

BUT, that's not the point. The point is that this quote from the magazine article:

Since the publication [of Everything Bad is Good for You] in 2005, [Steven] Johnson's argument in favour of what he labels the "Sleeper curve"—the steadily increasing intellectual sophistication of modern popular culture—has become something of a shibboleth for futurologists.

Like I said...stumped me.

What does "shibboleth" mean?

Well, we all know what I did next, right?

So, a shibboleth is something that a certain group of folks LOVES to talk about - that in the long run either doesn't mean anything or doesn't mean anything to any other groups of people, or both.

Like people who went to North Carolina A&T and this whole "Aggie Pride" thing, or George Bush supporters and the idea of his administration somehow being a good thing for this country.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

This kid's gonna be a star.

2008-06-21T00:43:00.007-04:00

Just you wait.

If anyone would like to put his picture in a magazine or a feature him in a commercial or a major motion picture, drop me a line at mau (at) imsayin.com.

I dub thee: Mini Mau.

"I woulda taken the money." aka "Sheer Obstinance"

2008-06-21T00:19:00.003-04:00

But Edith Macefield is(was) not me.

Edith was the sole holdout who refused to sell her house in a blue-collar neighborhood in Seattle.

Even when AlL of her neighbors moved away, she stayed.

Even as new construction and "progress" brought luxurious condominiums and fancy restaurants, she stayed.

Even as the construction company built the walls of a parking deck around her house, mere feet from her windows, she stayed. Looks like they even cut her poor tree.

Even when they offered her $1 million, she stayed.

Yup. $1 MILLION. 6 zeroes. Count em.

I mean, she coulda taken the money and found her a nice little condo, and bought herself a little Chevy Cobalt or something and let that old Cavalier go. I mean, at 86 years old, don't you owe yourself a comfortable ride? I had an ex who used to drive one of those, and they're pretty crappy. Lemme tell you.

Well, Edith has gone on now, and you gotta give her her props. She went out on her own terms.

I woulda taken the money. Know What I'm Sayin'??

My First Father's Day

2008-06-16T01:11:00.005-04:00

I realize that many, if not most, of the readers here don't actually know my name or have a great idea of what I look like besides the "About Me" photo, which is a pretty nice photo in all honesty. That's on purpose, right? After all, people know me, and sometimes I may not want my personal and relatively anonymous thoughts to intersect the people who know me. In some circles, I'm kind of a big deal.

At any rate. The point is, this blog is intentionally faceless and nameless (I do realize that the dogged researcher could find out more about me than just my name and picture).

That being said, I'm breaking my personal blog code, and posting a picture of myself, several actually. Below is a letter that "my son" wrote and gave to me (with Mrs. Mau's help). Printed up and framed.

This by far MADE Father's Day for me. One time for Mrs. Mau.

Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers out there. It's a great job to have, huh?

Know What I'm Sayin'??

I Live in Decatur 7: Just Married

2008-06-11T07:11:00.003-04:00

So yesterday, I'm riding along, and I come up to a stoplight. After a few moments, I glance into my rearview mirror, and I see writing on the windshield of the car behind me.

It says "Just Married 6/9/2008".

I think to myself "That's great. I support Black Love! I hope it lasts." Stuff like that.

Then...something registers on my internal "Oddness Meter".

I realize that it's 2008, and it's a free country, and anyone can pretty much do whatever they want with their personal lives, BUT...

Who gets married on a Monday?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I live in Decatur.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Movie Review: The Golden Compass

2008-06-02T02:06:00.000-04:00

This movie was NOT GOOD.

Movie Review: Cleaner

2008-06-02T02:00:00.002-04:00

Cleaner has a pretty decent pedigree behind it:

Samuel L. Jackson
Ed Harris
Eva Mendes
Keke Palmer (Akeylah and the Bee)
Luis Guzman

That being said, the movie was...just okay. The story itself was decent and workable, but the performances by the actors were a bit stiff and forced.

I felt that in trying to develop the characters fully, the movie ended up giving background information on the characters that ended up doing very little to further the plot.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Confluence

2008-05-20T00:09:00.000-04:00

One thing about the whole pregnancy and deliery process that's been nagging me and that I've been itching to write about is the confluence of the traditional and the new, the superstitous and the scientific, LONG-believed and trusted methods and new medical methods.

It's really amazing to me that human beings have been having babies for thousands of years, but there is so much speculation and intuition to the whole process.

Also, in the hospital I experience the battling concepts of "Good" and "Bad" babies. Apparently, a baby who cries often is a "Bad" baby, and a baby that is generally quiet and agreeable is "Good". How can you label a newborn infant as bad, though? How? At least come up with a better term for that, huh?

I mean, the technological advancements are positively astounding:

Ultrasounds
3D Ultrasounds (the new hotness)
Sensors that detect the occurance and duration of contractions
Infrared heaters
New drugs
New ways of performing cesearian sections

But the superstitions:

If you raise your hands over your head during pregnancy then the cord will wrap around the baby's neck.
If you have heartburn, then the baby will be born with a lot of hair.
Babies sitting high or low or to the left or right in the belly indicating sex.

I'm not sure there's a huge point to all of this. I just found it all very interesting and slightly offputting.

The confluence.

Be Encouraged.

2008-05-04T20:42:00.002-04:00

I was talking with a friend of mine this weekend - about babies.

He expressed a sentiment that I'm certainly no stranger to. That being that it's a scary time to be bringing children into the world. Global warming. Droughts. Disease. Death. Destruction. War. Economics. Politics. Food recalls. All of a sudden even plastic is bad for you.

This is what I told him. (Not in these exact words, but you'll get the gist.)

Yes. Its scary. BUT looking down on a baby. A newborn baby. A new life, you can't help but to be encouraged. The sheer fact that you see these scary things in the world gives your new son or daughter an advantage because you can prepare him (or her) for what's out there.

I look down at my son, and I can't help but to wonder not just what he's going to be, but WHO he's going to be. WHAT he's going to do.

Everybody who has ever walked the earth, started out just like my little son. Can't speak. Can't understand what everyone is saying. Peeping. Pooping on himself. Crying for no reason at all. George Washington Carver. W.E.B. Dubois. Barack. The garbage man. The police officer. The local butcher. The people in your neighborhood. The best and worst of society. All of them started out exactly the same way.

A new baby is unmeasurable potential. The potential for what is up to us.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Quaker vs. Aunt Jemima: It's a Draw!

2008-05-04T20:15:00.003-04:00

So, I was in the grocery store yesterday, and remembered we needed some grits. I head towards the grits aisle, and I reach for the Quaker Quick Grits. The same grits I always buy. The one with the white man on the front. Cool? Cool.

But wait. Right next to the Quaker Quick Grits are the Aunt Jemima Quick Grits. I notice - perhaps for the first time - that the packages are virtually identical. The only differences are that the packaging changes from blue to red, and the picture changes from the white man, to the black woman. Everything else stays the same. Even the picture of the food itself.

Me being me, I asked myself: What's the difference?

I compared ingredients. Exactly the same.

Price. The same.

Then I tried to think of any other situation where a manufacturer has two identical products in such similar yet different packaging, right next to each other. And could come up with none.

You know what this is?

It's an ole-fashioned "We got a bunch of people who were raised on this one, and a bunch of people who were raised on that one, and we don't want to lose any of 'em to Jim Dandy or somesuch so we best just leave it the way it's always been..." Situation. What clearly started out as a racial decision is now...What? A dated holdover at best. At worst, a stubborn refusal to evolve.

Some things change. Some stay the same.

It's a wonderful life!

2008-04-11T16:10:00.003-04:00

Good people!
I don't have much time, but wanted to post a couple of photos!

It truly IS a wonderful life! Know What I'm Sayin'??

Innovative Thinking

2008-04-04T22:43:00.002-04:00

I really like this one.

A consumer product design STUDENT (not professional) has come up with a novel and innovative solution to an old and constant problem.

Daniel Sheridan volunteered at a school on a Kenyan island last summer. While there, he was inspired by watching the children there. They played with such energy and vibrancy that he marveled at the thought of what could be done if that energy could somehow be harnessed.

He ruminated on the idea of harnessing the power of play for a while, and finally alit on the idea of playground equipment - the see-saw.

The see-saw he designed is wired to a storage unit. Just 5-10 minutes of see-sawing can generate enough energy to light a classroom for an entire evening. This could make a HUGE impact in many communities. Currently many schools in Africa open their doors to adults in the evening. Without electricity, the classrooms are lit with candles and kerosene lamps. Imagine the impact this could have.

I've toyed with a similar idea, myself. Only my idea isn't quite as sophisticated. I've imagined just setting a huge hamster wheel up behind the house and letting my child (or dog, or friend, or stranger, or anyone who needs exercise, for that matter) just get on there and go bananas. Like I said, a bit primitive compared to Daniel's see-saw.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

This is Not Good

2008-04-03T01:32:00.002-04:00

This is NOT a pity party. More of a ranting session.

So...this evening, I'm bopping down the stairs going to get my frozen pizza out of the oven, right? Okay. I'm pretty much at the bottom of the stairs, and all of a sudden, I'm on the floor, like 10 feet away.

I fell. It was nasty. It reminded me of a "yard sale" when you're skiing, only there were no skis involved.

What's more, my ankle hurt(s). Hurts like hell. My 9 months pregnant wife upstairs hears me fall. Of course, I HAVE yell up to her that I'm fine, but I'm really not. This isn't going to be pretty.

That was at 6something this evening. It's now after 1am. There is still lots of pain. And lots of swelling. I've got this knot about the size of a tennis ball on the outside of my ankle, and I'm pretty pissed about it.

I've got the guy that did this construction project in the house coming tomorrow to finish up, and I won't be able to help at all. This baby could be born any minute, and I can't even carry Mrs. Mau's bags to the car.

I'm wishing I had something a little stronger than Tylenol.

Not good. Not good at all. Mau is NOT happy. And I'm ALWAYS happy. But not now. Right now, I'm pissed. I'm crabby. Obstinate. Grumpy.

There you have it.

Just call me Mr. Grump Grumps.

Bah Humbug.

You know what I'm sayin'.

BabyWatch '08: An Update

2008-03-30T15:20:00.003-04:00

I have refrained and restrained myself from talking about the baby here too much, but here's an update:

My son will be here anytime now.
Anyday now.
ANYtime.
A.NY.TIME.

Everyone is on alert. Every time I call my mother or my brother, their first instinct is "It's time."

It's like that.

Anytime now.

Stay tuned.

Holla!

In the News: Food Products

2008-03-24T02:16:00.002-04:00

A couple of...interesting...stories in the news related to food.

First, this one.
Short version: A 28-year-old gets ticketed for speeding in Connecticut. The excuse he gave the trooper? He was in the midst of dunking an Oreo in a glass of milk, but actually dropped the Oreo into the milk. In the process of rescuing the flailing cookie, he lost control of the car.

This sounds a little too far-fetched to be a lie, but even if it were true, I wouldn't tell a police officer that. The dude received tickets for speeding, and for driving with a suspended license. No mention of a ticket for doing something stupid while driving like dunking cookies in milk.

Second, this story.
Short version: There's this "stuff" that they give some prisoners in some states called Nutraloaf. It's made of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes. Supposedly it's a "complete meal".

Nutraloaf is simply served a piece of plain paper. It is usually given to inmates who use their trays and flatware to throw their feces around (usually at people). Inmates say it is so bad, that there should be due process, including warnings, before they are served nutraloaf. They say it is a punishment. Some state governments have agreed with the inmates, putting structure around the circumstances under which nutraloaf is served. Sounds like punishment to me.

I can't make this stuff up, people.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

The Dirty (but Cultured) South

2008-03-21T19:14:00.002-04:00

Read this on ajc.com today.

The Atlanta Ballet is working on a collabo with Antwan "Big Boi" Patton called "Big".

The Atlanta Ballet's site says that Big Boi and other Purple Ribbon artists will be performing live, on-stage along with the dancers.

Hotness.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

I Still Live in Decatur

2008-03-21T00:24:00.002-04:00

By the way.

I don't know if y'all have been looking for more ILiD posts, or not, but rest assured, more are coming.

The Sun is starting to come out, and folkz in the ATL always get Spring Fever something fierce, so there should be no shortage of material.

Just wanted to let y'all know.

I'm also about to undertake a construction project here at the house. I'm seriously considering posting some before/during/after photos here, assuming I can get clearance from Mrs. Mau, so look for that.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Holla!

I'm the Juggernaut, Bit*h.

2008-03-17T17:54:00.002-04:00

This thing is CRAZY.

This may be the prototype for the first Terminator. It's called the "Big Dog", and it's built by Boston Dynamics.

"Where I was During the Tornado" aka "That's not a question. That's a statement."

2008-03-15T07:04:00.002-04:00

So much.

Okay, so you may or may not know that a tornado rolled through the core of Atlanta last night around 9:35pm or so. The SEC Tournament was in town, and I was actually on my way there, but I figured that since there would be LOTS of people around, I would be smart, and travel by MARTA. I parked at the Inman Park/Reynoldstown Station.

That's how I found myself on the train on an elevated bridge when the tornado hit. It was a short train, only two cars. There were only around 15 people on board, total. My Mother had just called just before I boarded to see where I was, because she knew I was going out. I assured her that I was in a covered area, and that I was fine. She was very concerned, because their weather radio was telling her that the storm was on a path taking it straight through the city.

We're on the train, and I think the train operator (Ms. Arnold, I found out her name was) sensed something was amiss, so she slowed the train down. Just then, the wind picked up. And the hail started. I can say for a fact that there was at least softball-sized hail, and definitely some that was bigger than that! I seent it with my own eyes.

I think Ms. Arnold was a bit more shaken up than the passengers were. From her vantage point and perspective at the front of the train, she actually saw it coming towards her from the east, traveling west, as the train was traveling west. She said that she could see the electric junction boxes on the telephone poles burn out in showers of sparks, one after the other, cascading up the street. She could also see random debris flying everywhich way. At some point she was trying to make an announcement to the train, and I was very impressed that she didn't utter any expletives in the commotion.

After things settled down a bit, she got us going again. But not for long. As she edged forward, we could see something across the tracks. Part of the guardrail that runs along the train tracks had come dislodged, and was laying all the way across the tracks. Well, let's go back to the station we just left. But there was something blocking the tracks there also. We were stuck.

The highlights of what happened next:

As you can imagine, there was a...motley...cast of characters on the train. Most of them did not like being stuck. A few of them just kept pacing back and forth. By the end of it, a few of them REALLY had to pee. At least a couple of them had had a couple of drinks. I'm pretty sure I saw one girl smoking a cigarette. Lots of cussin'.
MARTA had to send some technicians to walk along the tracks, clearing debris.
Since there was a metal guardrail laying across the electrified track, they had to temporarily cut power to the rail (and the train), to move it.
That motley cast I mentioned...did NOT like being stuck. In the dark.

1.5 hrs after the storm...we got moving.

So, just after the lights came back on, this exchange happened:

Random young dude who needs an English lesson: "I can borrow your phone(?)."
Me: "What?"
RYDWNEL: "I can borrow your phone(?)."

I hand him the phone.
He makes a call. Has a brief conversation.
Hands the phone back to me, without another word.
No thank you of any sort.
I had to force myself not to say: "Do you mean 'Excuse me, but can I please borrow your phone for a minute?'"

I mean, that's not a question. That's a statement. Home training, and fundamental education. It's not hard. I don't need the boy to be able to pick out participles and maintain complex patterns of subject-verb agreement. Just form a real sentence.

Jeez. Just say Thank You.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

When I'm Alone

2008-03-07T22:05:00.004-05:00

I've got a confession.

I've held on to this one for a WHILE.

I'm not even sure my wife knows this one (she will now).

Do you know how to play chess? Not strategy...just the basics.

If not, read this, and then come back and continue to read.

Okay.

My confession:

When I'm alone. In a hallway. In an elevator. In a courtyard. On a tiled floor.

Sometimes...I walk like a knight. I'll step up one square on the grid, and two squares to the left. Or two squares to the right. Or I'll step up two squares, and one square either to the left or the right.

Always forward, though. Never backwards, because I've got places to go.

There you have it. I walk like a knight.

I'm not ashamed. You got a problem with it? I didn't think so.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Am I the Only One Who Gets This? - 2

2008-03-07T21:50:00.002-05:00

And another thing: My Address Book.

I need a way to keep the contacts in my e-mail and my cellphone all synced-up and current. I'm thinking the best way for this is to start with something like Plaxo.

However...how to keep my Plaxo in sync with my GMail? There's a quandry, huh?

AND

Plaxo is really good about keeping just about every piece of information for a contact that I could want to keep. From mailing addresses to Instant Message IDs. Wait...instant message IDs. Well, I already use Trillian to consolidate all of my IMs accounts across all platforms.

Why is it such a stretch to allow my Trillian to hook into my Plaxo account? Of course, there would have to be a certain amount of...amgibuity, right? Because there's a chance I won't even have a full first and last name for EVERYBODY in my IM list. Maybe I can specify which contacts get consolidated? There are lots of "ifs" and "maybes", but trust me. It's doable.

Oh yeah. And it's all got to be accessible from everywhere. My cellphone, GMail, Mozilla Thunderbird and Trillian. Even Microsoft Outlook if I so desire.

Oh yeah, and somehow link my Plaxo back to my LinkedIn, my Ning(s), and my MySpace and Facebook, even though I don't use either of the latter two.

I haven't lost you, have I? If I have, let me know, and I'll explain it to you. I've got it all drawn out in my head.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Am I the Only One Who Gets This?

2008-02-28T09:43:00.002-05:00

I've got a feeling that this may turn into a rant, so bear with me.

I'm getting fed up with Web 2.0 sites wanting to own my content, rather than just publish it. I think that ANY site that offers what it calls a "Blog" should be able to publish an RSS feed of that blog AND subscribe to another RSS feed for it's content. Same thing with photos. Any site that carries photo albums should be able to subscribe to a Flickr or Picasa feed for those, and also offer a feed for you to subscribe to.

I'm being too ambiguous. How about some examples?

RattlerRoundup.com. This is a site hosted by Ning.com by and for the Glorious Rattler Nation of Florida A & M University. I have connected with people who I have not seen in over 10 years! I can have a Blog on Ning! I can post my photos! Great, right? No! Why? Because I already have a blog. I don't need another blog. Ning should ask if I already have a blog, and just jump on that feed. Instant RattlerRoundup blog. Same thing with photos. I have already gone through the trouble of posting my photos to Flickr. Do I want to download them from Flickr, and then upload them to Ning? That would be stupid. Flickr offers RSS feeds. Give the flexibility to tag my photos with something like "for:rattlerroundup", and then Ning should be able to subscribe to that tag, and hocus-pocus - my photos are on RRU.

Another example: Geni.com. Geni is a service that lets you create and maintain your family tree. It's really wonderful. I introduced Mrs. Mau to Geni back in 2006 after our Wedding, and now our tree has almost 1500 people. Geni lets me share photos with my family. Why should I have to download my photos from Flickr, or from RRU/Ning, and then again upload them to Geni? That's duplication of work. Duplication of work is bad. Duplication of work is a waste. Of. My. Time.

Time is a COMMODITY. Time is VALUABLE! I would LOVE to share my thoughts and my photos with you, but I don't have the TIME to manage 3 Blogs, and 4 Photo Albums.

Another site that lets you publish a Blog and Photos: Myspace. More duplication.

Between Tagging and Feeds, there is NO reason this should not be in place already.

Am I the ONLY one that gets this? Hello! Hello?!?! (taps the mic) Is this thing on?
Argh! (throws the mic down, and walks away.)

Happy Birthday?

2008-02-27T14:21:00.003-05:00

This post has semi baby-related content, so if you don't feel like reading that type of stuff, then leave now...

Anyway...

I've never been big on birthdays - mine, or anyone else's. I mean, when you get down to it, EVERYBODY has one, so what makes mine or yours so special? If you're friend of mine, then sure, I'm glad you were born, so your being here is a reason for celebration, but if we're such tight friends, how about we celebrate the day we met? A day we shared a unique or memorable experience? You know?

HOWEVER...I'll tell you one birthday I think I'll make it a habit to recognize EVERY year; That's right - my son's birthday!

Why? Well, that's going to be a special day in MY life. A day MY life will be changed. I'm not sure how I'll personally celebrate his birthday every year, though. Probably not with a huge party. Something a bit more private and introspective.

I'll keep you posted.

By the way...Mrs. Mau and I have chosen a name for the manchild. It's on the baby website, which is the same as the wedding website, if you had that web address.

If you don't have that address, and would like to keep tabs, then contact me at mau (at) imsayin.com, and I'll be glad to share that info with you. I'm not really a fan of putting my personal information out on the Interweb for all to see, but anyone who's friendly enough to ask for it, is probably friend enough to know it.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Call Me

2008-02-27T14:17:00.002-05:00

New addition to the page: a "Call Me" Button.

It's pretty simple. If you want to talk to me, click that button. The system will first ask you for your phone number. Then it will call you, and probably ask for your name. After that, the system will call me.

I may answer. I might now. Pretty cool, huh? It's a feature offered by GrandCentral.

So, call me.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

I Will Not

2008-02-14T14:16:00.003-05:00

Things here are not bad. They could be better, of course, but they're not bad. Let's just say there is loads and loads of room for improvement. Gads. Acres. If you've got improvement to spare, then we'll take it over here.

But not bad.

It's easy to forget that it's not bad, though. Today's Pearls Before Swine:

For an instant, I was like "Geez. I know what you're talking about. Make room for me."

But

Then I said to my self "[Self] Hold up one damned minute. Don't you know who I am?" (I had a Juggernaut Moment. Let me know if you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about there.) I am he of the ever-present smile and good vibes. I am the bringer of cheer, and the banisher of frowns. I'm that guy. This is not the proper attitude of that guy. So, what am I gonna go do? I'm gonna do what I can, when I can, in good conscience. And sleep soundly when I'm done. We've got a kid on the way. SOON. And a son at that. I'm excited. No Crate O' Sadness for me. I'm straight."

I will NOT go quietly into the night.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

That's What I'm Talkin Bout!

2008-01-29T08:19:00.000-05:00

I just caught one of those Hanes Comfortsoft commercials with Michael Jordan and Cuba Gooding. A pretty middle-of-the-road commercial, right?

I got to asking myself: "I wonder how much Michael got for that commercial?"

Then I said to myself: "Hold up. I don't think he even says a single word!". As a matter of fact, they could have filmed that footage of him while he was going about his normal day-to-day activities.

That's what I want. I want to get paid for just showing up and doing what I normally do.

The Comfortsoft waistband IS soft, by the way. AND comfortable.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

TV Show: Breaking Bad

2008-01-28T02:17:00.000-05:00

Breaking Bad is a new show on AMC. When I first heard about Breaking Bad, I was mildly interested. But...in light of this whole writers strike thing, I figure any drama showing new episodes these days is worth a look.

The prognosis: I like it.

The basics: High school chemistry teacher Walter Smith (played by Bryan Cranston from Malcolm in the Middle) is working hard to provide for his family. His pregnant wife Skyler and his son Walter Jr., who has cerebral palsy. Walter has this nagging cough that for a long time he assumes is a nagging cold or something. When he collapses one day at work at his second job at a car wash, he finds out that he has terminal lung cancer. All of a sudden he realizes that he's about to die relatively soon, leaving his family in pretty bad shape. On the news he sees a story about a methamphetamine lab that was raided. What peaks his interest is that over $700,000 in cash was found on the scene. At this point , he decides to "rage against the machine," if you will, also known as "Breaking Bad". What happens? Well, that's the point of the show.

The pilot and the first regular episode have aired, and already A LOT has happened. I think AMC shows reruns often, so it shouldn't be hard to catch up.

It's worth it.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Semi-Book Review: The Water Cure by Percival Everett

2008-01-27T04:35:00.000-05:00

This is a semi-book review, rather than a book semi-review. That means that I'm reviewing half of the book, got it? I'm glad we straightened that out.

Oddly relevant, this one is. The scenario: The main character is a man named Ishmael, whose young daughter was kidnapped from in front of the house where she lives with his ex-wife. She was found dead in a park a couple of days later.

Ishmael then somehow finds and kidnaps the man who did it, or at least is highly suspected to have done it. He plans on torturing and ultimately killing him.

This book, so far, is a difficult read. It is told mostly from inside Ishmael's mind. Imagine how scattered the mind of the average adult male is. Now. Imagine how scattered that adult male's mind would be after his daughter has been kidnapped, and after he has in turn kidnapped her killer. He jumps from subject to subject. He ponders Greek philosophers. He thinks about his ex-wife. He has conversations with the man who is tied up in his basement.

With any book. If you ever get to the point where you find it difficult, you have the option of stopping. Right? Well, what if you want to see what happens? You push through for a while. But it isn't getting any easier. Could the denoument be worth trudging through this crazy guy's mind? This guy's crazy mind? We'll see. I had just had these thoughts when I came across the following passage:

I can do what I like at any moment I like in this document or text of
however we name it because this is my world, universe, neighborhood, note
(though I hate seeing the word note in my notes), and I can do what I damn well
please and fuck you if you think I'm ignoring rules and fuck you if you think
that I'm being indulgent and fuck you and if you think that references to
archaic philosophical notions are mere erudition, wihch they are not, but fuck
you anyway because this is my world and you're welcome to it if you want to
enter and if you don't want to enter then fuck you twice anyway and if you do
want inside then fuck you trice because you fucking deserve it.

That about sums it up, huh? If you want to read, then fine. If you don't, then that's fine too. Close the book and get on with your life.

I'm continuing to read.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

We Are the Champions My Friend

2008-01-24T22:36:00.000-05:00

Check THIS out:

Nice, huh?

What's that? What's so special about this picture of our sooty fireplace? Okay. Let me zoom in a bit for you.

That's right. My league's (one of them) Fantasy Football Trophy. I accepted it just this past Sunday. Let me tell you, the hate in the room emanating from my league-mates was palpable. The trophy is new for this year. We even went back and added the winners from the past 4 years. Never mind them, though. This is what's important:

Yup. "Power of the Glow II". That's a nod to the movie The Last Dragon. The original "Power of the Glow" wasn't a half bad team, either!

Listen, if you're not into Fantasy Football, don't start. It can kinda take over your world.

Yes, indeed. We ARE the Champions, my friend.

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Some Things Change. Some Things Stay the Same.

2008-01-24T21:39:00.000-05:00

First, the things that stay the same:

I STILL read license tags. A sample below, and more to come.

Kind of a scary license tag, huh?

I STILL live in Decatur. I haven't seen much particularly outstanding lately, but I did come across a little something... I saw this at my local Home Depot. The sign did say "Contractor Pickup", but part had fallen off. If you can't see it very well, it says "ACTOR PICKUP". Just a little chuckle.

The things that change:

Well, many things change, but I gotta admit there's one thing that's been conspicuously absent from the blog: There's another Mau on the way. That's right. Mr. and Mrs. Mau are expecting a Baby Mau. This isn't new news, either. Expect a joyful post with birth weight and length, hopefully along with a hearty "Mom and baby are both doing fine!" in LESS THAN THREE MONTHS. Did I mention it's a boy? You're damn right it's a boy! (For the record, if it were a girl, I'd be saying "Damn right it's a little girl!")

Gotta talk some more about Baby Mau. This is the first grandchild on BOTH sides, so I've got a feeling we may be spending a LOT of time un-spoiling him! For now, Mom and baby are both great. We got a 3D ultrasound last weekend, so if Mrs. Mau approves, I might share his picture. Still mulling that one over.

What else? My brother, Mr. O, just started a new job that's he's really excited about, so our clan is pretty happy all around. He hasn't posted anything in a while, but he's still around.

That's all for now, family. Be well.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

I Live in Decatur 6: Get 'em While They're Hot

2008-01-12T23:57:00.001-05:00

I have a friend who collects Jordans. He buys the new ones when they come out, and he looks at them for a little while, and then he puts them back in the box, and puts them away. If you visit his home, you may be able to get him to play "Show and Tell". When he and his wife moved into their new home, I tried to sell him on actually displaying the shoes in nice plastic boxes on the wall in their "office", but his wife vetoed that idea.

Anyway, this is something that I'm not into. I'm just not.

My friend is not alone. Not by a long shot. There are MANY people who eagerly anticipate the release of new Jordans.

So eagerly, in fact, that they will stand in line in front of the store and wait for it to open on the day the shoes are released. Rather, the night:

That's right. The Athlete's Foot near my house opens at midnight so that people can buy the latest Jordans.

The first time Mrs. Mau and I witnessed this, we had NO idea what it was, and were SO curious to find out what was going on to cause all of the commotion, that we pulled into the parking lot and asked someone:

"Hey man. What's going on here?"

"The Jordans." - This guy had a weird high-pitched voice, plus he was clearly not from the South because it sounded more like "The Joy-ens."

"The what?"

"The Joy-ens. You know. Shoes." With this, he actually pointed at his feet to get his point across.

"Oh. Okay. 'Preciate dat." And we motored the window back up.

With this, Mrs. Mau and I looked at the line at the door (at least 30 people), looked at the marquee, and then back at teach other. Quizzically.

"Wow." We were silent for a few moments after that.

That's right. The new Nike Air Jordan basketball shoes. Actually, in the picture above, it's more appropriate to say "The new old Nike Air Jordan basketball shoes." Because these were the Retro ones.

I live in Decatur.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

p.s. Can YOU tell that the "8" on the marquee in the picture above is upside down? I certainly can. I see that kind of stuff all the time, and it bugs me.

This is NOT a Political Post

2008-01-04T10:17:00.000-05:00

Do me a favor. Read the title again. You got it. This is NOT a political post.

I saw a blurb somewhere online this morning talking about Barack Obama's victory speech last night after winning Iowa. There are links to YouTube video on Obama's Campaign Site, and the NY Times has the transcript.

I can't honestly say that I usually listen very closely to political speeches. Like Obama mentions, I usually find them chock-full of what people want to hear versus much factual information. I thought this one was pretty good. I can say that I enjoyed reading it.

I did "furrow my brow" at his talk about hope. For all of it's blemishes and faults, the United States is the place people want to come to when hope...is all they have. For the most part, I'd say that the ones that make it here are to take that hope, and improve their own quality of life as well as that of their loved ones. The assertion or even the slight implication that we don't have hope or that our level of hope is somehow lacking is typically American; rose-colored glasses, if you will. The woman in college in Cedar Rapids? In many places she wouldn't be able to even go to college. That son in Iraq? He enlisted. He wasn't drafted. In many places, he wouldn't have had that choice.

I think I would have much preferred that he use the word optimism, instead of hope. It's not quite as strong a word, but much more accurate and appropriate, methinks.

This has NOT been a political post.

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It's a new year, y'all. Act like it.

2008-01-04T00:54:00.000-05:00

I'm not real big on holidays. My immediate family doesn't have a huge i nclination to be together at Thanksgiving, and we never had a Christmas tree at our house when I was growing up. I knoe there was no Santa Claus waiting to put presents underneath that tree, so I didn't really have a sense of loss there. I welcome Memorial Day and Labor Day because we all need a day off from work sometimes, right? Anyway, you get the point.

One time of the year I do get a bit reflective and introspective during New Year's, though.

Have you ever woken up on a Wednesday or Thursday morning, and reflected on all of the things that you want to do that day?

Have you ever woken up on a Monday morning and spent a few moments planning out the whole week?

Well, at New Year's you can plan out your whole year. Cool, huh?
Not only that, you can look back at the things you said you were gonna do last year, and grade yourself. Or not. If you come up with a year-old goal that you didn't accomplish, you can either renew that goal, or decide it wasn't all that important, and drop it.

It's a clean slate. A new beginning. You think your 2007 was busy? Just wait. 2008 will blow your mind.

A note on 2007. It wasn't the greatest. Don't get me wrong. It definitely had it's high points. Most of the cooler stuff I haven't even shared here on "ye old blog", you don't know the half of it. But 2008 - I'm positively giddy just thinking about it.

My plea to you: Don't waste your clean slate. Not to be a downer, but you aren't guaranteed another one. I'm not asking you to sit down and write a whole list of Resolutions. Just one...and you don't even have to write it down. You don't even have to come up with it yourself. I'll give it to you. It's not hard. You can do it.

Do better than last year. Improve. Progress. Learn. Grow.

Have a great year, good people. An outstanding year. Ground-breaking, and trend-setting.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

I Live in Decatur 5: Just. Stop.

2008-01-03T00:11:00.000-05:00

I'll confess first that this photo was taken squarely in Atlanta, and NOT Decatur. In the parking deck for Lenox Mall. The date was February 10, 2006. I was going through some old photos on my computer, and came across this.

That's right. Feast your eyes. Let them take in the whole image. Wait...is that? Did they...? Yes. They did.

Some...BAMA...slapped Mercedes Benz badges on a Chrysler. The star isn't even centered.

Do. Better. Do it for me. Do it for yourself. Do it for your as-yet-unborn kids. (At least, I HOPE this idiot hasn't procreated.) Do it for the soldiers overseas. Do it just for kicks. I DON'T CARE WHY! JUST DO IT. BETTER! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THIS WORLD, PLEASE REMOVE THE MERCEDES BENZ BADGES FROM THIS P.O.S. Even if you keep the "Kompressor", at least take off the star.

Thank You.

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A Certain Logic

2007-12-30T15:35:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine bought a car in August of last year, just before he started Grad School.

It was a Volkswagen GTI. Nothing super crazy. Just a dependable car to get him around town.

I don't remember if this happened before he bought the car, or after, but he has one rim on the car that does not match the other three.

The other day he explained to me that as he's gearing up for graduation, he's pondering whether or not to sell the VW and buy something else. The VW needs some minor cosmetic work, and of course there's that mismatched rim. His option are:

Sell the car and buy something else
Keep the car, get the cosmetic issues fixed, and...buy two rims. He figures that since it's impossible to see both sides of the car at the same time, it only really matters that the rims on a particular side match each other.

A certain logic.

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AIRPLANESEATRECLINEOLOGY

2007-12-23T21:08:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite comic strips is Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis. Great stuff.

Today's strip:

I understand just where he's coming from.

Know What I'm Sayin'?? A ball of confusion.

I Live in Decatur 5: Whose House?

2007-12-14T09:44:00.000-05:00

I'll tell you whose house.

That's right. It's Mamma Nem's House. I caught this just a week ago in Stone Mountain, on the way to visit a friend. had to pull a U-Turn to go back and snap this photo, but it was worth it.

Not much to say about this one. I DO wish they would have gotten a graphic designer to help out with this sign, though. The way those "m"s are so wide that they encroach on the other letters is pretty disgusting. And the "e" in "Nem's" just looks out of place. It doesn't really match the rest of the font.

That being said, I wish them luck on this new venture. It's hard out there.

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I Live in Decatur 4: Do Better

2007-12-06T10:14:00.000-05:00

You know, you can take the "person" out of 'Bama, but you can't take the Bama out of the person.

I mean, look at it. Look at the background. This is a nice neighborhood! These aren't punk-ass houses! Why?!?!

Why do you attach your mailbox to the post with DUCT TAPE?!

I saw this in my friend Chris' neighborhood. I have asked him to keep an eye on this to see how long it stays like this.

Poor. Sad and poor.

Do better.

I live in Decatur. Know What I'm Sayin'??

B from the P: "Why does Christmas Celebration Begin Before Thanksgiving? Should This Be?"

2007-12-02T20:27:00.001-05:00

So, right now, at this very moment, Mrs. Mau and I are at my parents house. We have dinner here most Sundays. Anyway, after dinner, my Mom pulled out this huge stack of papers. Lo and behold, this stack of papers is made up of...stuff...that I have produced over the years. Mostly homework-type stuff. Awards. Homemade cards. You get the idea.

Here is a composition that I wrote at the age of 11. It is dated November 16, 1987. I have left the few small misspellings and grammatical mistakes intact.

Enjoy.

Why Does Christmas Celebrations Begin Before Thanksgiving? Should this be?

Christmas celebration begins before Thanksgiving because Christmas is the
more popular holiday. I believe children keep asking and asking parents to
go Christmas shoping until they agree to go. Once they start , they think
it is fun as much as the children do. Then, the get so caught in buying
things for relatives and friends, they don't notice how fast time goes by.

As for Thanksgiving, most people get tired of having turkey for lunch and
dinner day after day after day. Other reasons for this are that before
Thanksgiving, every year, most stores have sales on all turkeys and families
start to have turneys before Thanksgiving even starts.

Back to the subject of Christmas, I think people should not start preparing
for Christmas until the stores start to have sales on everything in the
store. Yes, the lines will be long, but which would you rather be, tired
or broke. I would rather be tired and I think all other people would also
rather be tired over broke any day.

Sigh. Young genius. It seems I've had a pretty cynical opinion on the holidays for a while, huh? I think I still essentially feel this way.

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I Live in Decatur 3: Perspective

2007-11-29T16:21:00.000-05:00

This may be the WORST installment of ILiD so far. Or maybe the BEST. Depends on your perspective, I suppose. It's all in the perspective. This place is actually in neighboring Stone Mountain, and not in Decatur, but that's really all semantics.

Ready? HHeeeerrreeee we go.

I submit this building:

Looks fine, right? Well, looks can be deceiving. This building was build 3 or 4 years ago. I remember when it was going up. According to my Mom, this building sold fried turkeys one hear, and then was supposed to be a roti shop. I can honestly sat that I've NEVER seen a business actively operating out of here. Any ideas why?

How about this: I'll give you a different perspective on the whole situation. Scroll down.

Keep scrolling. Trust me. It's worth the wait.

Okay. Here we go.

Yup. Your eyes aren't lying to you. This building is only maybe 8 feet deep. Like I said. Perspective.

It doesn't make any sense, really. Why would someone go through the expense of building a BRICK structure, and only make it 8 feet deep? Does it even have a bathroom?

Just odd.
I live in Decatur.

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"Respect Your Elders (?)" aka "With Age Comes Wisdom"

2007-11-29T14:57:00.000-05:00

This afternoon I went over to Publix. I decided to make myself a nice sandwich, so I headed to the deli counter. There were a few people in front of me, so I had a short wait. Also waiting was an older gentleman.

He struck up a little random conversation, and eventually told me a story about he when he was in elementary school, he decided he would make something of himself, and get out of his small home town in Alabama.

He told me about how most of the preachers in town didn't have the greatest diction, but the Presbyterian preacher that was brought in to give the baccalaureate service was a very fine orator indeed, further inspiring him to make something of himself.

He spoke about how he entered the Army, and was VERY glad to come home walking on his own two feet, rather than in a pine box. After the Army he tried to attend Tuskegee, but was told that in order to be accepted, he needed a transcript and a recommendation letter.

At this point, it was his turn in line, and he ordered his turkey ham, but I hope you get the general vibe of the guy. I mean, when a relatively distinguished senior citizen wearing a Tuskegee Airmen cap wants to talk, the least you can do is listen for a few minutes, right? While I was ordering my pastrami and swiss cheese, he wandered off. I can only assume that he eventually made it to Tuskegee.

As I was walking out of the store with my purchases, I noticed him pulling out of the parking lot driving a Lincoln Town Car. A fitting coach for such a man. As he drove away, I looked at the back of his car. I saw one of these:

I guess he didn't learn quite enough at Tuskegee.

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I Live in Decatur 2

2007-11-22T11:15:00.000-05:00

This one just speaks for itself, don't ya think?

I took this just this past Saturday. I was out with Mrs. Mau and my dear Mother, and one of us saw this. Luckily, I was driving, so neither of them had a say in the matter of whether or not we would stop.

That's right. I live in Decatur.

I Live in Decatur

2007-11-15T02:18:00.001-05:00

That's right. I live in Decatur.

So, a LONG time ago, I saw this marquee, and it REALLY bothered me. I'm embarrassed to even think about how long I talked about taking a picture of it and sharing before I actually did so. I finally found myself with a few free minutes, and my digital camera in the car.

Thing is, I can't quite put my finger on what it is that bothers me so much. Could it be...

I know people call Atlanta "Da A", but I think it's going a bit far to put "Da A" on a marquee.
This place technically isn't in Atlanta. It's in Decatur.
Wings and Lasagne?! Those don't go together. Come on.
What's up with that ampersand? I didn't even see that abomination until just now.

I think "I Live in Decatur" will be a recurring thing here on the site. I'll share weird things that I see here in town.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Holla.

Feed Your Mind

2007-10-21T17:59:00.001-04:00

I've spoken before about RSS. It's a lot to go into right now, but the short version is that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It's useful because it allows you to "subscribe" to the content from websites that you visit often, rather than have to actually waste visiting those websites when you're not really sure there's anything new there. If you'd like to know more about RSS, check here or here.

Beware this trap: Don't subscribe to SO MANY feeds that you give yourself overload. It's important to constantly prune your feeds. You're subscribing to feeds because there's so much CRAP out there that you want the stuff you really want to read to come to you. Therefore, it behooves you be sure that the stuff that comes is quality. If you become dissatisfied with what you're getting, get rid of it.

That being said, Yahoo! offers a service that lets you aggregate multiple feeds into a single feed, and I've created such a feed of stuff that I enjoy reading. I have decided to share it with you. Keep in mind that I'll constantly be pruning this feed, but for right now I'm pretty happy with it. You can subscribe to it here. It's called "Feed Your Mind". The content is varied, but consistently interesting in my opinion. Mind that I don't call something "interesting" lightly. The items that come through here should (hopefully) be thoughtful, insightful and enriching. If you come across anything that you think would be a worthy addition to the "Feed Your Mind" feed, please let me know.

Enjoy your reading.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Movie Review: Michael Clayton

2007-10-21T17:51:00.001-04:00

Let me just say first that the title doesn't really do this movie justice. Not that I can come with anything much better at the moment, but I'm 100% positive that the title could be much better.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I'm trying to come up with some movie metaphors for it, but I can't really come up with any right now. I'm reminded of that Movie Spy Game. The previews for that movie showed lots of action, but when I saw the movie I realized that all of the action was in the form of flashbacks, and the actual core-plot contained very little action at all. The trailers for Michael Clayton implied action (at least to me), but this wasn't really an action movie. It was more of a suspenseful legal drama. Although, there weren't ANY courtroom scenes. Cool, huh?

The movie starts out with a gripping perfect-pitch opening monologue from a character who we don't even meet until 10 or 15 minutes later. I really wish I could find the script of that monologue, so that I can read through it again. A really good piece of writing.

From there, it just takes off. It's fast-paced, without being frantic, and somehow, it judges, without being judgmental. Clooney is human and believable. Perfect role for him.

I really don't want to go any deeper into it, but trust me, it's well worth your time.

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Randomness: Tahitian Treat

2007-10-14T03:27:00.001-04:00

Total randomness: Remember Tahitian Treat? The red stuff?

How about I saw this lady buying some at the Kroger the other night. I realize that Kroger was mentioned in my last post, but since it's less than a mile away, I'm okay with being there a few times a week. There's a Publix there too, and I'm sometimes in there twice in one day.

Anyway, this lady was buying Tahitian Treat. The worst part: She wasn't buying a 2-liter bottle. This chick bought a 12-pack. Crazy.

"Yes they deserved to die, and I hope they burn in hell!"

2007-10-14T03:10:00.001-04:00

Remember that? John Grisham? A Time to Kill?

Damn that was a cold-blooded line. Samuel Jackson REALLY captured it. That whole book was pretty good. Had me mad and almost crying at the same time.

Or what about The Runaway Jury? About the guy who's been going around trying to get on the juries for these huge court cases against the cigarette manufacturers? He KNOWS the manufacturers are tainting the jury, so he starts manipulating the jury himself?

The Firm? That one STILL has me wary of the corporate machine. Creepy.

The King of Torts - after I read that one I was an authority on class action suits - at least until I married an attorney and by extension, gained a whole slew of lawyer-friends.

All these legal thrillers, right? What about the others? The non-legal thrillers?

A Painted House - What?

Bleachers - Apparently, it's about football. I'm not pressed.

I was walking through Kroger the other day, and I saw his latest - Playing for Pizza. Another football book. A QB doesn't hack it in the NFL, and ends up moving to Italy to play for a team that just wants "An NFL QB". Snore.

Come on, John. Stick to the legal thrillers. Better yet, don't. I'm don't even care anymore. I'm not even sure why I'm writing this. Bah humbug.

Know What I'm Sayin'?? No? I don't care. That one line IS cold-blooded, though.

In the news...

2007-10-09T22:27:00.000-04:00

I can't make this stuff up, people.

Okay. Get this:

I'll break it down for you:

A 14-year-old girl keeps getting in trouble (presumably at school).
The girl's single father gets SO frustrated that he can't think of any suitable punishment for her. What does he do? He essentially puts her in a minimum-security jail.
On Friday evening, he lets her go to the bathroom, then locks her on the 2nd floor balcony of their apartment, and THEN he leaves home for the evening, returning about 5am.
He leaves her out there for most of Saturday and Sunday.
He periodically lets her inside the house to use the bathroom.
He leaves her a ladder so that she can get down from the balcony in case of an emergency.
At some point during the weekend, she actually uses the ladder. She goes down from the balcony, goes to the leasing office, and gets a spare key so that she can use the bathroom. She then gets a neighbor to lock her back on the balcony, and return the key to the leasing office so that her father doesn't get angry.
On Sunday, the father was arrested for cruelty to children and reckless conduct.

I'm not saying I condone what the brother did...but I understand.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

The Office Season Premier: One Comment

2007-09-28T11:35:00.000-04:00

As much as I hate it that I have these shows that I have to watch, I watch them anyway. So sue me.

I have one comment about The Office last night.

I was 99% sure that Dwight had killed that woman's cat as soon as he said the thing was dead. I was 100% sure when he said this:

Cats do not provide milk. Or wool. Or meat.

That pretty much did it for me. I was done.

UUmmm...What else? If you don't watch The Office, then you're really missing out. If you actually work in an office, then it's even more funny.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Jack Bauer Arrested on DUI

2007-09-25T11:11:00.000-04:00

I don't know what he was drinking, but whatever it is, if it was strong enough to get Jack Bauer drunk, I don't want any.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Break out your eye patches...

2007-09-19T10:06:00.001-04:00

...and sharpen your swords! It's International Talk Like a Pirate Day, people!

You may or may not know that I was a pirate in a past life, so I'm apt to put on my pirate face in a photo at any moment.

AAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH...

I REALLY wish that I had known about this yesterday, so that I could prepare you properly, but hey, it's not too late!

Holla!

Good Article: How to Attract and Manage Novice Clients.

2007-09-12T09:54:00.000-04:00

Perhaps a better name for this article may be "How to Win and Manage Novice Clients", but the contact is still great.

This article is written with regards to a website designer, but I think ANYONE doing any type of freelance work can gain something from this article, whether you're a musician playing gigs, a journalist doing a little ghost-writing, or an IT Consultant.

The article gives a few pointers for dealing with novice clients, but rather than just telling you what to do, gives a good explanation of each point from the client's perspective.

Find the original article here. I was trying to pick out a couple of my favorites to quickly "hook you", but they're ALL good.

Check it.

2.5 Movie Reviews: "The Number 23" , "Stranger Than Fiction" and "The Ten"

2007-08-26T23:43:00.000-04:00

Mrs. Mau and I have been on a slight Blockbuster spree lately. Over the past week or so we've seen:

The Prestige
Casino Royale
The Number 23
Stranger Than Fiction
Serenity

(For us that's a spree.)

Anyway, the brief reviews first:

The Prestige: 8 on a scale of 1 - 10. Good story. Good effects. Good ending.
Casino Royale: Also an 8 on the scale. Maybe even an 8.5.
Serenity: This one's more of a niche movie. If you wanted to see it, you probably REALLY wanted to see it and enjoyed.

Now for the meat:

The Number 23

This was just a weird, bad movie. Don't read this if you plan on seeing it, and don't want me to spoil it. Jim Carrey plays an average dude, who finds a comes across a book about a more-than-average dude that is slowly being driven crazy because he keeps finding occurrences of the number 23 in his life. The disturbing part is that Jim's character also keeps finding odd parallels between his own life and crazy dude's. He's put over the edge when the character kills someone. Somehow he arrives at the (correct) conclusion that the book is some kind of thinly-veiled confession of a real murder. The kicker: Jim's character actually wrote the book, and the book IS about him. It's all very weird and stupid.

Stranger Than Fiction

When this one was in the theaters I wanted to see it, but never made it happen. The main character is Harold Krick, played by Will Ferrell. Harold is a decently likable, if extremely boring, guy. One day he starts hearing a random voice narrating his day-to-day activities. For a while he's moderately annoyed about this, but he's coping reasonably well until the narrator lets it slip that Harold will be dying soon. Rather than going quietly into that good night, Harold sets out to confront his would-be killer. Along the way he falls in love and resolves that he's okay with dying. (He doesn't die in the end.) A thoroughly charming movie. I quite enjoyed it.

The Ten

Mrs. Mau caught a sneak preview of this one with her best friend. No matter what the trailers look like, don't let them convince you to see it. My interpretation of her feelings on it: It's bad. It's stupid. You'd be better served by sitting in a tub of ice-cold water and slitting your wrists. With a dull, rusty razor blade. It's. That. Bad. Don't see it.

Holla.

When a plan comes together...

2007-08-26T23:10:00.000-04:00

So Yahoo is shutting down their "Yahoo Photos" service. The reason this is noteworthy is because they made it SO easy to migrate my photos to another service. They also offered the options of downloading them or having them burned onto a CD.

The process was as easy as
1

2
3

Nice and painless. Just like I like it.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

If not for the courage of the fearless crew...

2007-08-25T20:07:00.001-04:00

Y'all really have NO idea of how many different people's random incessant experiences and thoughts I come across every day. Every once in a while I find something noteworthy, and share it with you.

Today we have a Trip from a woman named Judy. Judy took a South Pacific cruise out of New Zealand that almost turned reminiscent of the themesong from Gilligan's Island, only on a much larger scale. Alls well that ends well, though.

Her report from the Independent Traveler.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Security is Peace of Mind

2007-08-22T08:33:00.000-04:00

I like to think I have a talent for sizing things up. I can look at an item or an idea, and I can poke holes in the execution of it, or I can give it the thumbs up.: "I think this is a good idea. It should work". Over the years I've managed to get pretty quick at this.

Well, I saw a product this morning that I think is a GREAT idea for families and single-folkz alike. It's called the Lock Jaw.

The Lock Jaw is a device that is used to secure a deadbolt from the inside so that nobody can disengage that deadbolt from the outside, whether or not they have a key. It can be installed on the door with screws, or even with double-sided tape. It's simple to use, but very secure. When it's not being used, it's out of the way. It can be used in homes, apartments, dorm rooms, or even in hotels while traveling if you do it right. Maybe pack it with some strong magnets? Just be sure not to erase your credit cards. Good, clean, simple engineering. I like it. There's a write up at this site, with more photos.

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Monday was my Birthday!

2007-08-22T08:15:00.000-04:00

I like being born in August.

Why? Because there are no major holidays in August. Your birthday seems a bit more special when you don't have to share the month. Although, August would be a GREAT time for Couch Day.

This year my birthday was pretty low-key. I like it that way. Gives me time to be...introspective. My wife and I had dinner on Sunday with my parents and my brother (whose birthday was the Tuesday before) and his wife. Just the six of us. Good times.

Last night Mrs. Mau took me to a restaurant that I've been wanting to hit for a while - Element Gastro Lounge and Food Lab. (More on that later, I think.)

My breakfast today: Carrot Cake. My favorite.

How old? 31. Yup. 31. Feels good. It feels like I'm at the beginning of some trip. Remember how you recited numbers when you were a kid? "Twenty-nniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine, Thirty." That "Thirty" had the tone of such...finality. Then, you hit "Thirty-one", and it was like the journey to 40 was just starting!

So, these days I'm not thinking of what will happen this year. I'm thinking about the next 10 years.
Positive and negative.
Births in the family.
Deaths in the family.
Happy times.
Sad times.
Reaching landings and turning corners.

I'm looking forward to the trip.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Funny and Disgusting...at the same time.

2007-08-20T00:19:00.001-04:00

I find stuff on the internet. It's a talent I have.

Today, I found this dude's blog, who sees interesting products in his travels and purchases and reviews them.

I was searching for something about IKEA, and found one of his posts, and from there, I found his post about Chicken of the Sea Mandarin Orange Salmon Cups. Yeah. Turns out it's as bad as it sounds.

I gotta admit, this guy is pretty good with words. Maybe we kink alike. On simiar wavelenghts or something.

Anyway, his post is just an interesting, entertaining, slightly stomach-turning read.

Enjoy!

-Know What I'm Sayin'??

Bad TV: Comedy Central's Roast of Flavor Flav

2007-08-14T23:47:00.001-04:00

If you ask me, Comedy Central's Roast of Flavor Flav put Black people back by AT LEAST 15 years. Probably more.

Remember Spike's movie Bamboozled? That was a satire. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously. This was even worse than the worse moments of Bamboozled, but they weren't being critical. They were serious. Really enjoying themselves.

Make that 20 years. This HAS to be the most un-funny thing ever to air on TV, much less Comedy Central. I'm considering a personal boycott of anyone and everyone who had a hand in it or even attended and was in the audience laughing their ass off. Somebody get me a guestlist.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

By the way, I do realize that spelling out the entire title of the show may make this post show up when people Google the event. I don't care.

I'm a cook, dammit.

2007-08-14T23:22:00.000-04:00

Tonight my wife asked for nachos for dinner. When I do nachos, I essentially make the same taco sauce that I use for Taco Night, but put it with nachos instead of taco shells, and I always do two layers of the nacho chips with the sauce, some cheese, lettuce.

Okay. The sauce: Usually I buy the Old El Paso Sauce Mix. I get a pound of ground beef, cook that through, add the sauce mix and a little bit of water, and that's the sauce.

Now. Tonight, I went to Publix and got all of my ingredients. I got home, and I realized that I FORGOT the sauce mix. So, what to do? Now, the average dude would turn around and get back in the car, and go buy the mix. The gas you would burn to get to the store would cost more than the mix! I'll you what I did. I made my own sauce. That's right. I made my OWN DAMN SAUCE.

I browned my ground beef with some chili powder and some black pepper, and added some chopped onions and bell pepper (which I was going to do anyway). This is where I started creating. I pulled out a can of tomato sauce, and added that. A little salt. A good dose of Adobo seasoning (this dude I used to work with hipped me to the Adobo). Some sprinkles of ground red pepper (just a tad too much for Mrs. Mau. Sorry.)

That was it. Better than the mix.

Hell yeah.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Vocab 202

2007-08-11T10:22:00.000-04:00

I was channel surfing briefly this morning, and I saw that Smurfs was on!

Of course, I didn't stop to watch, but it did bring back some fond memories.

I think I'm going to try to work "Smurf" into my daily vocabulary. It's such a universal, versatile word! It's a proper noun, a regular noun, a verb, and an adjective!

"What the Smurf! Listen here Smurf. You better stop smurfing with me, before you force me to smurf you a smurfy new smurf!"

Know What I'm Smurfin'??

Holla if you hear me? - Don't. Just. Stand. There...

2007-08-11T02:50:00.000-04:00

...Bust a Move!

Holla if you hear me!

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Holla if you hear me?

2007-08-10T12:58:00.000-04:00

This one is for all my Atlanta natives.

If you call yourself an Atlanta native, and have no idea what I'm talking about with this one, then ask your parents.

Ready?

Y'all remember the Thrifty Nickel?

Holla if you hear me.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Not. Cool.

2007-07-31T22:16:00.000-04:00

I saw one of the brand new Mercury Sables on the road the other day. I REALLY think it was a bad move to essentially remove all of the color from the tail lights. The lenses are clear instead of red. It's not quite as bad on the other colors, but on the silver ones, it looks like the back of the car has cataracts. The ass-end of this car is just bland with absolutely NO personality. Just these empty eye-like things staring at you.

Blah. Bleh. (I thought about pulling down a photo of someone with cataracts for you, but that would have been...weird.)

Out of sight, out of mind.

2007-07-29T21:28:00.000-04:00

You may or may know this about me, but most Sundays my wife and I have dinner with my parents. Usually in the 7:00 timeframe. We usually are able to hang around and chat awhile about...well, stuff.

Anyway, often the TV is on during our meal. We usually watch some combination of 60 Minutes and Antiques Roadshow. Tonight, during Andy Rooney's commentary during 60 Minute was pretty interesting. He talked about all of the different stack of papers and such in his office. The general gist was that he collects and stores a bunch of papers, and then doesn't do anything with them. At some point he decides that a particular piece of paper is important and stores it away, but rarely does he ever find a reason to go back and retrieve one of those pieces of paper.

He seems to be pretty comfortable with this arrangement, but he does realize that it's kinda counterproductive. I'm trying to move more towards a paperless lifestyle. I don't want to get to be Andy's age and have whole forests' worth of paper stacked up everywhere.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=2512318n

Know What I'm Sayin'??

It really trips me out...

2007-07-27T21:45:00.000-04:00

...to see people with SUVs creeping over speedbumps. Or even worse, going around a speedbump.

Come on, people.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Hot enough for ya?

2007-07-17T15:18:00.000-04:00

According to this article, January 2007 - June 2007 is the second warmest January-July period. Ever. (Well, at least since they've been keeping track.) Behind 1998.

Wow.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

That's Played Out

2007-07-15T21:21:00.000-04:00

There are a many sites/blogs that I frequent, and there are a handful that I subscribe. One of the latter is Word Wise. It's written by Dan Santow, a Senior VP at Edelman, the world's largest privately held public relations firm. He began by sending out a weekly writing tip to some of Edelman's employees, and well, you know how things can kinda develop minds of their own.

Anyway, Dan recently released a post about once-impactful words and phrases that have been used and re-used so much that they have really lost their "oomph". He recommends finding a substitute whenever you find yourself using one of these terms. I wholeheartedly agree. Many of the terms he mentions come up quite often in the my field (Information Technology Consulting). Check out his entire post here, but here are some of the terms he mentions:

robust
turnkey
best-of-breed
mission critical
interactive
value-added
utilize
facilitate
strategic
leverage
proactive
empowered
best practice
granular
bandwidth
industry-leading
next-generation
world-class
paradigm / paradigm-shifting
revolutionary
wide-ranging
solution provider
integrated
thought-provoking

Know What I'm Sayin'??

"You better run!"

2007-07-15T21:12:00.000-04:00

That's just something people say when they know they can't catch you.

Why?

2007-07-13T15:54:00.000-04:00

So, I've gotten over the ludicrousness of purchasing bottled water, please tell me...why...does my Aquafina have an expiration date?

Water expires?

Know What I'm Sayin'?? Hello?!?! Is this thing on?!?! HELLO?!?!

In the news...

2007-07-11T16:19:00.000-04:00

No links on this, because there are PLENTY out there, but The White House is being REAL gangster with their's on these federal prosecutor firings.

Gangster.

I'm just sayin'.

My contribution to your 7/7/7

2007-07-05T07:47:00.000-04:00

Alright, family. I'm assuming that you've heard that July 7, 2007 is the biggest wedding day of the year, if not the decade, if not the millennium. That being said, odds are that you know of a couple of weddings going on this weekend.

I'd like to share a tidbit of knowledge with you. Even if you don't apply this this weekend, you will undoubtedly one day call on this information, and you will also probably share it with someone.

Have you ever been to a wedding with the happy couple chooses not to include on the program instructions on whether or not to stand during the bride's entrance? Or maybe they do print it on the program, and you have some people who just don't read? Then there are those darn late-comers who may not even get programs. It can be pretty awkward. Some people sit, some people stand. The ones who don't have programs kinda do the half sit/stand, trying to see what everyone else is gonna do. It gets really bad when all the people in the back(who don't have programs) decide to stand, but they really aren't supposed to stand, and the people in the front know that they're not supposed to stand but they can't see because of the nimrods in the back. Sometimes one person shames everyone else into standing with a comment - "Oh. Look at her. She's so beautiful! You HAVE to stand up for her!". (I saw that happen once.)

Anyway. When absent of explicit directions, here's how you know whether or not to stand up during the bride's entrance: Don't look at her. Look at her mother. If the mother of the bride is standing up, then get to your feet. If she's sitting there looking at her daughter and on the verge of tears, stay in your seat. A little dose of etiquette. It's that simple. Don't look at the bride. Look at her mother.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

I apologize in advance...

2007-06-28T15:13:00.000-04:00

...to this dude.

I was in my favorite fast food restaurant, and I got slightly perturbed by this dude in line in front of me, because he was standing like 8 feet away from the counter, waiting his turn. When the lady indicated that she was ready to take his order, then he walked up there. There was so much room in front of dude that it looked like maybe he had already ordered, and was waiting on his order.

Anyway, this dude had a ...MASSIVE...head. He was wearing an adjustable baseball cap - the kind with velcro at the back, instead of the old kind. Let me tell you how this dude's hat was crying for mercy! The little bit of velcro that was able to make that hit stay on his was sweating...working hard!

So. I did it. I had to do it. I took a picture. With my phone. Right there in the Chick-Fil-A.

I'm sorry dude.

Movie Reviewlet: Fantastic Four, Rise of the Silver Surfer

2007-06-25T10:31:00.001-04:00

When Mrs. Mau and I walked up to the ticket booth, I said "We're trying to decide between Oceans , Pirates, or waiting an hour for Fantastic Four." Without hesitation the chick said "Please wait for Fantastic Four. Pirates is 3 hours long, and Oceans has good action, but it's not all that great." That was good enough for us.

Enjoyed it. The Silver Surfer was done excellently. A bunch of inconsistencies between this and the first with regards to their outfits, but other than that I have few complaints.

My biggest complaint? Jessica Alba's makeup people. They gave her these unnaturally blue eyes that distracted me during the FIRST scene of the movie, and only marginally (if at all) improved throughout the movie. They looked huge and fake. Kinda like Michael Jackson's eyes in the Thriller video? When he turned into the...cat/werewolf-thing? Right.

Know What I'm Sayin'??

Mau's Interview

2007-06-21T09:05:00.001-04:00

I really don't know who started this whole interview thing, but what I do know is that somebody interviewed TDot, and then my Duck asked her to interview...her, and then my brother asked for one, and of course I had to get in the mix. And now TDot has fired off like 18 sets of questions.

Ready? HHeeeeeerrrrrreeeeeee we go:

1. How did you know your wife was the one?

Remember The Last Dragon? When Sho'nuff was dunking Leroy's head in the water and kept asking him "Who's the Master?" And then when he thought about he realized just WHO the master was? Kinda like that. One day (can't pinpoint) I was just thinking about the future and what not, and in my 10-years-down-the-line vision, she was there. That's when I realized that even though I wasn't necessarily ready to get married yet, that I would spend the rest of my life with her. I actually had two such moments. In our EARLY days of dating, we had a phase when we would talk on the phone first thing in the morning. Like 7:00am. Whenever we said we were getting up after talking the night before. Anyway, one morning we were talking and all of a sudden I just realized that this was no longer "the woman who I was dating", but my girlfriend. We had dinner that night, and I told her "I realized something this morning. You're my girlfriend." She was silent for a few moments, and finally said "I accept." Or something to that effect. We talk about that conversation often.

Give us details on your most embarrassing moment.

Most of my most embarrassing moments come from my name being mispronounced. When I was in high school, nine out of ten times it was said over the intercom, it was butchered. Forget that. Every time. The WORST time was not during high school, but college. Graduation. Florida A & M University. Tallahassee, Florida. Leon County Civic Center. May 1998. I'm standing there at the edge of the stage, shoulders back, head high. The chick reading names hesitated briefly, and then spit it out. My head dropped. My shoulders all but hunched over, and I slumped across the stage. Sigh.

What is your theme song and why?

I think I have a few:
If you ask my Wife, Simply Beautiful by Al Green. It was our first song at the wedding, by my request. This has been one of my favorite songs for at least the last 10 yrs.
If you ask my Mother, The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding. It's always been one of my favorites, and we both love Otis.
If you ask my friend L, The Soul Glow Song from Coming to America. That's his ringtone for me, and he cracks up EVERY TIME he hears it.
Um, I've always had a thing for Soul Man, by Sam and Dave. (Obvious reasons.)
Lately, I've had Ledisi's rendition of In a Sentimental Mood on repeat. Powerful stuff.

If you couldn't do your current job, what would you be doing for a living?

If I couldn't do this? Oh, I'd be a ssaaaaaadddddd case. You see, what I'm doing now is really thing I'm best at, I'd say. I'm an IT Consultant/Project Manager. I help people with problems make stuff better. I even do that kind of stuff outside of work. I have friends calling me for informal consultative advice and such. I think it matches my mindset very well. If I couldn't "consult" in some shape, form, or fashion? I suppose I'd probably go into some sort of sales job. The thing is that it's have to be something I actually believed in. Promoting something you don't believe in is worse that doing something you don't want to do. I sometimes think I could have been a pretty good doctor, but I don't savor dealing with...other people's private lives.

You're writing a letter to your 18 year old self. What advice do you give him?

Let's see. 18. On my 18th birthday, I was about to start my second year of college. I'd tell that dude that it's okay to do things the easy way. I have this chronic habit of "NOT doing something just because everyone else is doing it, and you know what'll happen and you know it'll turn out okay." I find that to be a bit boring and not very adventurous. The thing is, the road less traveled is a lot rougher and much more treacherous. I'll tell that 18-yr-old to go with the more obvious route sometimes. Sure, getting there is half the fun, but if when you get there you're broke and tired and beat-down, was the trip worth it?

Thanks, TDot!!!

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Know What Would be Awesome?!?!

2007-06-18T16:12:00.001-04:00

A show about a dude that's like, half Jack Bauer, and half MacGuyver.

Damn. That would be HOT.

And he would have a pet that was half Lassie, and half Battle Cat, but could fly.

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Thumbs Up to Thumbs Up!

2007-06-17T17:03:00.000-04:00

They say breakfast is the most important meal of day, so any restaurant that serves breakfast all day has got to be on to something. Thumbs Up Diner hits the sweet spot.

It's an Atlanta fixture for many, and if you're in the city, but haven't been there, then...well then you're just missing out.

One of my major gripes with most breakfasts away from home is there aren't enough good meat offerings that aren't made of pork. Most of the veggie substitutes don't hit the mark, and the turkey stuff is honestly a joke. On my recent visit to Thumbs Up, (yesterday) one of the specials was the Kirkwood Breakfast, which had a link of chicken sausage, along with a slice of french toast, and a small fruit salad. I mostly got it because I was intruiged by the sausage. My curiosity was rewarded. The sausage had great flavor, and was cooked just right - just a little charred all around, without being burnt at all. It was good enough for me to ask my waitress about it. It turns out that the chicken sausage has earned a permanent spot on the menu! This is great news. I'm very excited. This means that the carnivore in me will be satisfied when I go. This little addition really rounds out the menu at Thumbs Up. Get there. Ask for the sausage if it hasn't made it to the menu yet. You won't be disappointed. 3 locations in the Atlanta area to serve you.

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A Great Meal

2007-06-17T16:36:00.000-04:00

I had this meal over a week ago now, and I'm still talking about it, so I suppose it's worthy of a post.

It was last Saturday, June 9th. Mrs. Mau and I were in St. Pete for a wedding. She was in the ceremony, so she had to be at the hotel early to get ready. The result was that it was like 12:30, and the wedding was at 3, so I had PLENTY of time to feed myself.

I found myself at Zapata's, a Mexican restaurant just a block off Baywalk. It turns out that Zapata's had just opened on June 1, but of course I didn't know that at the time.

When I sat down, I was given the obligatory Chips and Salsa. After a quick glance at the menu, I supplemented that with the Guacamole. For my entree, I chose the "Beef Tips in Tomatillo Sauce". After I gave my entree order, this is what my waiter said to me: "How about to drink, sir? Just water? Soda? House margarita? Top shelf margarita? Homemade sangria?" Just then, something inside me just kinda clicked, and I knew it would be a good meal.

The Guac was, of course, fresh. At least, it tasted fresh to me! Nice whole chunks of avocado, excellent. I was honestly well on my way to being full when my main entree arrived.
I was quite glad I saved some space! The beef tips were well-done, as I requested, but not overdone at all, and very flavorful. Tender with excellent slightly charred flavor. The Tomatillo sauce was topped with diced onions and cilantro - two of my favorite produce-section staples. The whole combination, along with the rice and refried beans, was just right. Everything had just the right tone, and excellent flavor. The sangria had the whole fresh fruit thing going, and was quite tasty also. Tasty enough to order a second glass, so that should tell you something.

$35 bucks later, I rolled myself out of there, stuffed and happy. The food was great, the service was great, and I had NO complaints. The place also has a tequila bar, which I didn't get a chance to sample. Maybe next time. One day this week, expect to find me in search of a repeat experience a bit closer to home.

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Patronize!: My Book of Lists

2007-06-17T16:10:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, living in this digital world of ours full of online calendars, address books and photo albums, it's more than a little refreshing to step away from the keyboard sometimes. Enter My Book of Lists.

My Book of Lists is just that...a book of lists. It has pages for all of the stuff that you jot down on random pieces of paper, or try to remember for later reference. Now you have a place to dump those random pieces of information detritus and free your brain. I'm sure you'll find it quite liberating.

The standard pages in My Book of Lists:

a page for birthdays and anniversaries for each month
my Books to Read
my Movies to Watch
my Places to Travel
my Music to Buy
my Restaurants to Try
my Wine to Taste
my Sites to Surf
my Shoppes to Shop
my Quotes to Quote
my Things to Note
my Web User IDs and Passwords

There are a variety of covers to pick from, or for a more personal touch, any of the covers or inside pages can be customized for an additional cost. That way you can add a page for..."my Bowling Scores" or "my Golf Scorecards". Maybe "my Blood Pressure Readings". Actually, that's not a bad one. I have borderline high BP, and whenever I find myself at a doctor for a random appt, I ask to have my BP taken. This way, I wouldn't have to memorize it, or write it on a random sheet of paper! The point is, the books can be customized to YOUR individual needs. They come in four different sized, from "Mini" all the way up to the full-sized "Portfolio".

A new offering in addition to the standard My Book of Lists is...I'm not sure what the official title is. Let's call it "My Week". My Week is a book of identical blank templates for planning your week. It's got an agenda for each day, as well as a detachable book of "Things to Do" that you can carry around with you. Quite handy! Currently Portfolio size only, because honestly everything gets a bit smushed up if you go smaller with it.

Patronize!

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"The Longest Night I've had in While..." aka "The Syrup"

2007-06-17T03:44:00.000-04:00

I'm gonna use initials here to protect the guilty...

So...this long, long night.

It all started when me and two good friends of mine went to this concert hosted by Scion. I don't remember who it was that month. That's not important. The fact that Scion put on the event isn't really important either. What's important is that I got this bomb parking space, and my two friends, who rode together, parked about a block away.

So we leave the show, and I make for my bomb parking space, and I get gone, since my car was so close. I'm at least a third of the way home, when my friends, L and F, call me. "We got towed. Come get us." I'm not gonna get into exactly why the car was towed(it was bogus), because that's not important either. So, it's up to me to get the fellas home, and to the complete the job, I've got to help get the car back, which in Atlanta, is a slightly convoluted process. To muddy the waters, it was F's car, and his house keys were in the car. To get your car back from the tow yard, you need your registration. Luckily, he had the registration at his house. Unluckily, like I said the house keys were in the car. So, first step: get into the house.

The only other person with keys to F's house...is F's mom. So we end up calling her at maybe 2:30 in the morning, telling her we're on the way to pick up the keys. By this time, we're all tired, and slightly agitated about the tow situation, so it's a good thing she didn't press her son for details on exactly why he needed his spare keys. It's a solid 25 minute drive to Mom's house. We retrieve the keys no problem. Next step: get the paperwork. 15 minute drive.

Here comes the funny part. We get to F's house for the paperwork. While he's upstairs digging through files, L and I hit the refrigerator. We both look in there, but separately. Neither of us find anything fetching. A few minutes, we look again. This time, one of draws attention to something that both of us noticed the first time we looked inside, but didn't mention. There are like...6...glass bottles of maple syrup in the fridge, on the door. Each has maybe 1/2 an inch of syrup in it. There are at least two more on the counter top, similarly emptied (almost). There is also a pretty full one on the counter. We ask each other..."What's with all this syrup? Does he have some sort of weird syrup addiction? Do we need to have an intervention? What's going on? We'll have to ask him. An intervention it is." A few minutes later, F comes back down.
I say to him something to the effect of: "Listen man. There's something we need to discuss with you. If it's none of our business, and you want us to drop it, just let us know, but we need to at least bring it up." F looks at us, looks around the kitchen and points to the fridge and exclaims: "The Syrup!". We all literally collapse to the floor in laughter. For at least 6 full minutes. I'm talking belly-aching, tears-down-the-face laughter. It turns out that he makes oatmeal every morning, and sweetens it with syrup. When the bottle gets empty enough that there's so little in the bottle that it doesn't work itself out of the bottle and into the bowl quickly enough for him, he just sticks it in the chiller, and grabs a fresh bottle. Life is too short to wait for syrup, apparently. We recover for a few minutes, and head out. Next step: L's house. Because L's house is MUCH closer to City Hall, which is Stop #1 in the process of retrieving your car.
20 minute drive.

We get to L's house, and for some reason, the electricity has been turned off. Sigh. By this time, it's after 4:00, and you can cut the exhaustion and the disappointment in the car with a dull, rusty butter knife. It really wouldn't do to trek all the way back across town to F's house, because he's farther away from City Hall than my house is. Answer: Head to my house. The thing is, I'm the only one who's married, so I have to call my wife at 4:something in the morning and tell her that I'm bringing the fellas over. She wasn't happy being roused from her ever-so-peaceful slumber in the wee hours of the day to get the house suitable for guests. Another 20 minute drive.

By the time we get to the house, and get everyone settled, it's like 5:00 in the morning. Sigh. Luckily, I didn't have to work the next day, so I was able to get up and get F to City Hall to without much trouble.

True story. Long night. To this day, if you want to elicit at least a brief snickering fit from us, walk up, point at a refrigerator, or point at anything really and say..."The Syrup!"

Yup. True story. I couldn't make this stuff up, peeps.

Holla. Good night.

Hidey Ho, Neighbor!

2007-06-17T03:38:00.001-04:00

I was just thinking that it feels like it's been a while since I've shared anything in this particular forum. Then I was like "Well, it couldn't have been that long." Then I looked at my last post, and it turns out that it's been over two weeks! My, my. How time flies.

The odd thing about this little..."recess" is that I've got so much to share! I've actually got a little electronic sticky note on my computer with little notes to myself of things I need to get post about. So...let's see how many of them get out in the next day or two.

First is the story about the longest night I've had in a while...

Random Story: UPDATE - "Mike and the Porsche He Never Drove"

2007-05-29T21:02:00.001-04:00

I was thinking about this story, and I figured that if they took pictures, then they're probably online somewhere...

Click the picture for the whole story.

Holla...

And another thing...

2007-05-27T23:46:00.000-04:00

So...this is the scenario:

You're in a store. Any store. Doesn't matter. You're checking out. You swipe your card. The machine says "Enter your PIN." You don't want to enter your PIN, because they charge for that. You want to do a VISA debit, or a MasterCard debit, or whatever. So you tell the chick. If you're in a really nice store, the machine tells you what to do, but you're not in a really nice store, so you have to tell the chick. "I want to do a credit."

Her response? The machine's instructions for doing a credit? "Press CANCEL for Credit."

WTF?

Since when does "Cancel" mean "Credit"? Why doesn't EVERYONE just put in a "Credit" button?

The reason they default to EBT probably has something to do with them being charged by VISA for processing debit transactions, but there has GOT to be some measurable value to making things easier for the customer. By extension, this would also make less work for the employees.

Why is it so often the case that things that make perfect sense (to me) are so contrary to the way things are generally done?

Why do people throw their trash on the ground when there is a trash can FOUR FEET AWAY?!?! Maybe just keep it in your car until you home?

You can hear the music MUCH better when it's about half that loud, nimrod. As an added incentive, maybe you won't go deaf at the age of 50. And MAYBE your newborn or toddler's ears aren't are still a little fragile.

When you cross a 5 lane street in the middle of the block...at night...wearing all black - I CAN'T SEE YOU! I'm probably trying to get home after a long day at work, and I'm probably speeding. You might be dressed like a ninja, but you don't have the reflexes of one, so you might want to move A BIT faster if you don't want me to take out your kneecap with my bumper. Oh yeah, and if you get halfway across and have to ask yourself "Is that black car speeding up?" I probably am. Move your ass.

I don't want a bean pie, or a car wash, and I'm not going to put my money in that boot that you're carrying around. I'm willing to bet cash money that if I went to the store and bought a nice nutritious bunch of bananas and a salad instead of just giving you the cash, you'd look at me like I was crazy. GET OUT OF THE STREET.

That's a great segue to something else that has been on my chest for a while - panhandling. It's an issue in Downtown Atlanta. The way I see it, it works. If it didn't work...if you couldn't make a certain amount of money doing it, nobody would do it. My personal issue is with the panhandlers that don't speak to you. They just shake that damn cup at you. Listen. The biggest thing that sets us apart from animals is spoken communication. What do you do? You shake a damn cup at me. That's disrespectful. I'm a grown man. Speak to me. Babies play with rattles.

Inhale. Exhale. Repeat. Repeat. Where's my drink? Happy Memorial Day.

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Random Story: "Mike and the Porsche He Never Drove"

2007-05-25T11:45:00.000-04:00

I used to work with this dude named Mike. Really cool guy for the most part. Maybe a little wild, but most 24ish year old caucasian males are.

Mike left the company we were then working for years before I did. It was sometime during the Summer of 2001. They laid him off. We haven't been really great at keeping in touch. He moved to California, but his parents live here in the Atlanta area, so as far as I know, when he comes to town, he gives me a call.

The last time I saw Mike, which was still a few years ago, this is the story he told me, as retold by me, because of course I don't remember any of his exact words:

Mike went to work for this real estate company in California. It might have been another industry other than real estate, but that's what I think it was. Not really important to the story. He was totally new to the industry. Very shortly after he started, a few people from the office went to an industry conference in Las Vegas. He was there for a week or so, but being so new to the industry, it probably was a bit of information overload, and he really didn't get much out of attending the conference. Not his fault, really. Poor planning and decision making on the part of his employers.

The result is that the next year, since Mike didn't get much benefit from attending the conference the year before, they don't take him. They do, however, have him fly out to Vegas on the last day of the conference to help break down the company's booth. Kinda a slap in the face. "Come do our grunt work." So, he flies in maybe the night before, and is walking around the conference on the last day, essentially killing time. He talks to a few people, shakes a few hands. Whatever. Puts his name in a box or two to maybe win some stuff. (They always have drawings and such at these things.)

Turns out, he wins one of the drawings he enters.

Mike wins a brand new Porsche.

Like an $50,000 or $80,000 car. I don't remember which. Mike takes a few pictures with the car, and never sees it again. The car is taken to the dealership that owned, and Mike puts the car up for sale on autotrader.com.

Mike quit his job, and a week or two later, he was sitting in front of me telling me this story over a beer.

Crazy. Only in America.

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UPDATE: I was thinking about this story, and I figured that if they took pictures, then they're probably online somewhere...

Click the picture for the whole story.

Much ado about "nothing"

2007-05-23T10:27:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned the Idea Festival before.

Interesting (to me) post there today about "Nothing." I'll post the full text here to spare the lazy ones out there. I hope they don't get upset with me...

There's something about nothing

Turn to the back page of a special issue of Discover, just out, and you'll find "20 things you didn't know about nothing" by LeeAundra Temescu, a continuation of the magazine's "20 things" series. Here are some of the points Ms. Temescu makes about nothing that I find interesting:

1. There is vastly more nothing than something. Roughly 74 percent of the universe is "nothing," or what physicists call dark energy; 22 percent is dark matter, particles we cannot see. Only 4 percent is baryonic matter, the stuff we call something.
4. Even nothing has a weight. The energy in dark matter is equivalent to a tiny mass; there is about one pound of dark energy in a cube of empty space 250,000 miles on each side.
9. "Zero" was first seen in cuneiform tablets written around 300 B.C. by Babylonians who used it as a placeholder (to distinguish 36 from 306 or 360, for example). The concept of zero in its mathematical senses was developed in India in the fifth century.
14. Vacuums do not suck things. They create spaces into which the surrounding atmosphere pushes matter.
15. Creatio ex nihilo, the belief that the world was created out of nothing, is one of the most common themes in ancient myths and religions.
16. Current theories suggest that the universe was created out of a state of vacuum energy, that is, nothing.
17. But to a physicist there is no such thing as nothing...
19. ...In fact, according quantum mechanics, the energy contained in all the power plants and nuclear weapons in the world doesn't equal the theoretical energy contained in the empty spaces between these words.
20. In other words, nothing could be the key to the theory of everything.

The links and emphasis above are mine. Since hearing John Barrow speak at the last ideaFestival on the related concept of infinity in mathematics and cosmology, I've been a fan of nothing. And if nothing really is the key to a theory about everything, what we do with uncertainty surely matters.

Some insightful leaps in logic. Fascinating facts. Thoughtful comparisons and contradictions.

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Big City, Small Town

2007-05-23T10:22:00.000-04:00

So last night, I dropped trough this event hosted by Tanqueray, featuring The Roots. Breezed in maybe 15 minutes after the performance started, but it was all good. You can't really complain when you miss a little bit of a free show.

Anyway, I'm strolling through, and I pass by this chick. I think "I know her. I think. Jeez, that's Errin Haines." I found Errin's blog after surfing through one or two others, and I've always figured that I'd see her in the streets eventually. Atlanta is by no means a small city, but it's not huge, either, and judging from the places she writes about frequenting, we run in the same circles. At any rate I make a mental note: "Maybe I'll drop through her blog later and grace her with a comment."

A bit later, she's chatting with my..."brother-in-law". Turns out they're good friends! I speak to him, and turn to her and say..."You know, I read your blog." She withered slightly. Was maybe tad bit mortified. I think she recovered, though. I'm surprised she's not used to it by now. I mean, her blog is at [her name].com. And she's pretty liberal with posting pictures. She's like a local celebrity. I'm not that...open. I try to keep a more anonymous profile.

Anyway, good to meet you, Errin.

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I have my evenings back again...

2007-05-22T15:56:00.000-04:00

Well, last night was finale night. This marked the end of the Spring television season for me.

24 – done.

Heroes – done.

The Office – done.

You know what? Even though I’ll probably be right back in front of my TV next season, there’s a slight chance I won’t. Why not? Because I recently realized that 24, and Heroes, and yes…my beloved The Office; they’re just primetime soap operas. And I don’t want to be a soap opera watcher.

But I realize that that is what I have become. I talk about what Jack did at work. I’m completely engaged in the Heroes story. I work in an office, so The Office hits eerily close to home on a weekly basis. But they’re soap operas. And I DON’T WANT TO BE A SOAP OPERA WATCHER.

Why do they call them soap operas?
What ever happened to that show called Soap?
(a couple random questions)

And don’t try to convince me they’re not soaps, either. Sure, they’re episodic, but they’re also tightly linked. Regular dramas like CSI and Law and Order are episodic, but clearly (to me) in a different class than 24. Not nearly as tightly woven together.

I’m rambling, but you get the point.

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The 24 Season Finale - As it Happens

2007-05-21T20:34:00.000-04:00

8:35 - We're about a quarter of the way through. Mrs. Mau mentioned during the opening montage that we hadn't seen Bill Buchanan in a while, and he has already "inserted himself" into things. His wife is arrested. Jack is loose. All of a sudden, everyone is on edge.

8:40 - The VP looks pissed.

8:47 - Already, Jack was right, and anybody who didn't agree with him has been proven wrong. Oh yeah, and Ricky Schroeder just had a small bomb to detonate in his face. That's what happens when you disagree with Jack.

8:52 - The VP doesn't look so pissed anymore. That shell of righteousness of his just came crashing down, and pretty fast, too.

8:54 - Jack knows how his father thinks. He can run, but can he hide?

8:59 - OOOhhhhhhh! Chloe goes down!

9:07 - Jack: It's not your fault, Doyle. You were following orders.
Doyle: Just get the kid, Jack. Get the kid.

9:09 - A bit more unrealistic than usual: "I'm commandeering your helicopter. Get out. GET OUT!" Nobody's learned not to turn their back on Jack Bauer, yet? Come on, people?!

9:20 - They've got the fast music going. Something's about to happen.

9:21 - Jack is a one-man wrecking crew.

9:26 - Chloe's still down. I've got a feeling she'll be back on her feet by the end of the episode. Mrs. Mau is POSITIVE Chloe's pregnant.

9:27 - Shoot him Josh!

9:27:50 - Good job, Josh!

9:33 - Everybody's safe, and the bad guy is in custody. BUT...there are still like 30 minutes left! 24 isn't soft enough to spend that long wrapping stuff up. There MUST be more fireworks to come. Something else is gonna happen.

9:35 - You knew from that look on his face that Jack was about to let go of that ladder. "Jack's not ready to go back yet."

By the way...a break or two ago saw a commercial for the Transformers Movie. I'm SO THERE. May even catch it at the IMAX.

9:40 - Everybody's acting all relieved...like nothing else is coming. Do you know what can happen in 20 minutes?!?! That's practically an eternity in 24-time.

9:42:55 - Mrs. Mau was right.

9:45 - Nadia: "Where's Jack?" Buchanan: "We'll never find him. Not if he doesn't want us to."

9:46 - Jack's going to get his woman!

9:49 - "If you try sending someone after us, I'll kill them. I'm pretty good at that, too." Cold blooded.

9:53 - If they end the season with Jack whispering to a woman who can't even respond, I'm never watching 24 again. Okay. That's a lie, but I'll be really upset with...somebody.

9:54 - Jack is walking around, still with the gun in his hand like he's expecting Ninjas to appear out of nowhere.

9:56 - Not happy with the ending. I expected more. They even cheated me out of a few minutes. Bastards.

There's just SO many of 'em!

2007-05-16T15:18:00.000-04:00

So, sometime last year, me, my wife and her best friend were riding together somewhere. Even though she's usually the one with money, I was giving her my ATM card to pull out some cash. As I dictated the PIN, her face screwed up into a look of confusion and disbelief.

"What's with all those numbers?"
"Yeah. My PIN is 6 digits."
"What? What kind of PIN is that? 6 digits! You need to change that. That's crazy."
"I will." (I didn't)

The point is, Bank of America is SO large now and they issue out so many cards, that there just aren't enough 4-digit numbers to give their customers a certain sense of security.

They're that large.

Crazy, huh?

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Speaking of grammatical stuff...(A Confession)

2007-05-15T06:29:00.000-04:00

I know it's not grammatical per se, but I have a confession.

I use ellipsis WAY to much.

I hope those who have been visiting me for a while haven't noticed, but it's true. Not that I plan on changing any time soon. I'm just acknowledging.

Watch...now it's going to drive people crazy.

I'm nitpicking, I know, but...

2007-05-15T06:15:00.000-04:00

I hate it when people write out the phrase "first come, first serve".

That's just stupid. Come on, people. Fill in the missing words - "The first to come is the first to serve?" That's just not right. This isn't the Army.

What you really mean is: "The first to come is the first to be served."

Hence, therefore, consequently and so..."First come, first served."

I can't believe I'm the only one who sees this. And it's not just a random fact that I picked up along the way. To me, it's common sense - at least an extension of that "Reading Between the Lines" worksheet that I was given in...what...the 6th Grade? 7th? Yet time and time (and time) again, I get e-mails and Evites from people who run businesses, and have years and years of education more than I. More money. More lots of stuff. More grammatical errors in their communications.

Sigh.

Spread the word.

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That's just nasty.

2007-05-11T19:00:00.001-04:00

Mrs. Mau and I recently concluded that the day before yesterday (Wednesday), the dog ate a whole stick of butter.

That's just nasty.

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