Where Have All the Good Blogs Gone?

Top Chef Masters is back!

2010-04-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

We have been waiting for this day. I don't like the host and judges much, but the chefs and food...AMAMZING!!! Here's why I like Top Chef. The food is spectacular, the drama is mild, and the you discover even more places to go and try one day.

And they love cooking with duck! I love duck!

Ok, back to the show.

"I'd like a ginger ale..."

2010-03-26T01:28:00.000-07:00

It came up again yesterday. People on airplanes like to order ginger ale. Is it the altitude? Is it a guilty pleasure? We've all been told that drinking ginger ale is a good way to soothe your through when you have a cough. Who knows what the real reason is. The fact remains, ginger ale is good, but it's not good enough to be served in fast food restaurants. I'm guessing it's not a big seller and could be cheap to buy in bulk because of that, but I guess even cheap is not cheap enough to take on ginger ale. It's clear, it's sugary, it's fizzy. What's not to like?

I got to see some sales data from an undisclosed source and it revealed that ginger ale sales make up a very very low percentage of overall beverage sales. But the question remains, why is it so popular, but not really?

I think that when looking at the airplane example, multiple factors contribute to the observed outcome. Accessibility, price, and guilty pleasure might be among the largest factors. The fact that they offer ginger ale is huge. Something you might not otherwise be able to get unless you bought it yourself. Which brings us to factor two. It's free. We're likely to try things if they are free and seem to have no consequences. Is it really a guilty pleasure? Who wants to be that guy that orders a ginger ale when everyone else is getting their coke (pepsi) and diet coke (diet pepsi)? Not me. And not him! Anyway, secretly everyone has a soft spot for Canada Dry (or Schweppes to a less extent).

Anyway, now that you've read about this, you'll begin to notice it. Notice that people on airplanes don't have inhibitions about ordering ginger ale. You'll also notice that it's not a very common offering at the fountain soda machines. Think about it.

OLYMPICS!!!

2010-02-17T22:37:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends. Sorry for my 6 week absence. It was a busy January and now it's time for the...OLYMPICS!!! It's too bad I have to watch the coverage from NBC. It's all tape delayed, but you know, that's not a reason to not show all of the qualifying races. There are 4 channels at NBC's disposal and they are not efficiently using them. And today, was watching CNBC briefly saw some of the Men's hockey game between Sweden and Germany. As the game was going on, the channel cut to a commercial and came back to Slovakia and Switzerland WOMEN'S hockey! C'mon man.

TV Phrase of the Olympics: (blank) has the weight of their country on their shoulders.

New verb discovered at the Olympics: Jacobellis. Usage: Haha, you just pulled a Jacobellis. Loser.

Seriously, she's in the Olympics and I'm not, but she could show a little more remorse about blowing it twice.

Anyway, I'll continue to watch because I love the Olympics, but it could always be done better I guess.

Happy New Year! Bring on 2010

2009-12-31T20:52:00.000-08:00

I'm in Canada. It's cold. But I'm glad to be home. Team Canada won at the World Juniors. In your face USA. Hopefully Canada will win again.

Jennifer Lopez on the ABC NYE show...not sure I'm into that. Just sayin'.

Anyway, back to business. The year was action packed. Traveled to Europe and Africa for the first time. Ate a lot of food. Lost weight. Watched a lot of tv. Used a lot of internet. Kept Yelping. Started Tweeting. Did some Facebooking. One guy ruined air travel on Christmas day. My dad is fighting cancer. I don't have cancer. Moved residence. Didn't change jobs.

8 mins to New Years.

See you on the flip side.

The Origins of You Can't See Me

2009-12-17T22:55:00.000-08:00

One of the most memorable acts in sport (or life) is the You Can't See Me action. When you do a search in Google for You Can't See Me, the first result is You Can't See Me - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This link is to the wikipedia of John Cena's album. The third result is Urban Dictionary: YOU CAN'T SEE ME!.

John Cena. John Cena. You are amazing:

Now, normally You Can't See Me is done when you're winning...and this is still true, but you should make sure you can see at some point because this could happen to you:

But if you're not fighting at all, then you could be doing this:

I wanted to put clips of DeShawn Stevenson, but I was not satisfied with what was out there. Youtube has a bunch, but not enough of the goods.

Anyway, this post did not explain the origins very well, but it did show you that You Can't See Me is rad and should not be ignored.

C'mon Man!

Michael Jackson may get laid...and this time, no one can watch!

2009-11-29T20:08:00.000-08:00

I saw it on Google. Below is the screen shot. Look for the cursor.

Hey Charlie, you stink!

2009-11-28T21:17:00.000-08:00

Just want to give a shout out to Charlie Weis for making Stanford look good. They did plenty to make you win, but you couldn't close the deal. And no, Urban Meyer won't be taking your job at ND.

Get out of our state before your stink spreads to the San Jose Sharks.

Friar Tuck is everywhere!

2009-11-19T21:32:00.000-08:00

So we've been watching a lot of tv...no surprise, but we've been seeing Friar Tuck look a likes. First spotting was on Top Chef. Our friendly neighbourhood lumberjack Kevin. He's our favourite! But he looks like Friar Tuck. Put a robe on him with a big rope belt and there you have it. I wish I had the pictures from the finale where everyone got a hair cut! This is not a post about Top Chef, but it has been pretty amazing this season.

Another sighting we had was just tonight on FlashForward. I don't have a good picture of this one, but trust me. Have I been wrong so far? Anyway, in tonight's episode, his hair is a little bushier than usual. Those he's not as 'jolly', he's definitely on the list of Friar Tuck look a likes.

Ok, so there aren't too many other example (maybe none at all), but now you'll look out for Friar Tuck look a likes in your everyday life. Promise.

Roadhouse.

Leonid Meteor Shower - Meteoric Fail!

2009-11-17T03:18:00.000-08:00

Wasn't in the know when it came to this leonid meteoric shower, but let me tell you, in Berkeley, not all it's cracked up to be. Way too much light pollution and where there was very little (Tilden Park), you were not allowed in past 10PM. At least Berkeley thought it was important enough to maybe open the park up for a few extra hours this one time.

So our night went like this:

11PM - phone call for work scheduled, but is delayed until 12AM
12:30AM - roommates get ready to go look at meteor shower, but I cannot go
1:30AM - call over, I go outside to check it out, but don't see anything
2:15AM - go to Jack In the Box for night time fuel, still a ton of people rolling through the drive thru
2:55AM - see meteor...great.

Anyway, I saw 1.5 meteors fly by. It was like a missile. But as soon as I saw it and as soon as it went away, so did my interest. A little too much hype for me. Next time I'll stay home and watch it on youtube.

"Gesundheit!", "Gesundheit to you!"

2009-11-14T23:25:00.000-08:00

So the other day, I was thinking about sneezing. It's pretty funny, but according to wikipedia, "...sneezes spread disease through the infectious aerosol droplets, commonly ranging from 0.5 to 5 µm. 40,000 droplets can be produced by a sneeze.[2]"

Gross.

Sneezing for me is kind of random where I don't have a specific habitual sneeze. I'd say that I probably sneeze a little differently each time I sneeze. But I've learned that this is not the case for a lot of people. There are some people that sneeze in pairs, triples and quads! What I don't understand is if you sneeze, you're trying to clear some kind of irritation, but I'm guessing that a lot of times, just one sneeze will do. I'm starting to think that some people sneeze out of learned behaviour or habit. Thoughts? Keep track of how you sneeze the next couple of times and see if you have a pattern that you follow.

The other discussion that I had was what is the proper etiquette for sneezing? Is it to sneeze into your arms, tissue, or clothes? Or sneeze free into the open air (of course not right at someone)? I'm thinking that you want to promote the sneezing into your arms, tissue, or clothes, but if someone sneezed into the open, I'd promote the idea of sneezing into your arms, tissue, or clothes. Whether this is right or wrong, I don't know, but what I do know is that the first place that people will look for answers is wikipedia so you may as well prepare for the sort of dangers that wikipedia describes to not be a social outcast. Or the next stop is yahoo answers where you can find anything from an anser that sounds right to an answer about your mom.

In other news, when I cough most people think that I sneezed based on the way it sounds. I've gotten many bless you's after I've coughed. I've stopped explaining that it is a cough and just say Thank You.

Thank you to all of you who have said bless you to me.

Taco Bell for Dinner

2009-11-11T23:59:00.000-08:00

So what makes Taco Bell so amazing? I have no idea, but I think that it must be the compound similar to crack, but not illegal. And for whatever reason, we always feel like we need to eat a minimum of 5 hard shell tacos each time we go. I realize this is a problem, but it must be done. But let us look closer at tacos.

What is a taco? It's crunchy, it's soft, it's full of meat, and it's full of vegetables and cheese. To top it off, adding Fire sauce makes each bite yummy! Taco Bell uses a (non)precise method of proportionally added each ingredient to the crunchy shell.

Today, the extra items were the Black Jack box. It has the twists (pass), burrito, regular crunchy taco, and the black shell taco. Anyway, should one consume all this food? No. But I did. And I have in the past...and possibly might continue to do every so often.

We have also found a favourite Taco Bell worker. I think her name is Tiffany, but she remembers us each time we come in. She was there when we saw this guy who maced himself in the drive thru line. Yeah, seriously, that happened.

Bang!

Roadhouse.

The Tray Table - God's Greatest Gift?

2009-11-03T18:27:00.000-08:00

Look up tray table in google images and you will be presented with 3.94 million results. The tray table is part of the top ten creations of all time. First of all, let's list the things that you can't do with a tray table:
1. eat it
2. make it walk your dog
3. do your taxes
4. go to work for you
5. shoot a gun

Here are things that the tray table can do:
1. hold up speakers or your house
2. allow you to setup a second tv in your living room
3. you can sleep on it
4. holds mass amounts of garbage
5. end world hunger

Now, it's obvious that the second list is way more amazing than the second list. I'm tired of tray tables not getting their due. Without tray tables, there would be no tv dinners, there would be no way to live without buying expensive tables, you would not be able to maximize your tv viewing each night, and the list goes on.

What would make me happy? Go to Target, pick up a set of tray tables, bring them home and set them up. The ROI is unbelievable. Trust me.

Today We Had Oysters

2009-10-25T22:21:00.000-07:00

I don't normally eat oysters, but how can you go to Tomales Bay Oyster Company and not eat oysters? I learned how to properly shuck oysters. It's pretty easy once you do it a few times. I'm sure army guys say the same thing about peeling potatoes. Anyway, if you're planning to go up there, don't wear your nicest clothes. You're going to spill something on your clothes and you'll smell like everyone else's food.

Anyway, whoever thought up eating oysters. Gross! But with enough tabasco, anything can taste good. And don't forget your beer.

Cast of Project Runway Season 6 = Cast of Winnie the Pooh?

2009-10-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

I've watched a few seasons of Project Runway, but for some reason, this season has made me less and less interested. I've gone as far to ignore the clothes and look at the people. So what does this mean? It means that I saw a lot of similarities between the cast of Project Runway and Winnie the Pooh. I would show pictures, but this is in by no way a physical comparison, purely by personality, so there will be no pictures.

Winnie the Pooh - Christopher
Piglet - Johnny
Eeyore - Epperson
Owl - Gordana
Roo - Louise
Tigger - Nicolas
Christopher Robin - Logan
Rabbit - Irina

I kind of had to reach for most of these, but Epperson is what spurred all this on. He's my favourite and this list is compiled only out of love.

You can make your own list and send them to me!

Brown Bread. Yes, it does exist.

2009-10-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

When you were younger (or just yesterday), your mother always told you that you should eat healthy. Enter bread. There are many types of bread, but everyone is familiar with white bread. So white bread goes great with anything, ham, bologna, chicken breast, peanut butter, jelly, bananas and the list goes on. Now, what does one do when they are eating too much bread. They can eat brown bread. What's brown bread you ask? Why are you asking? Brown bread is brown bread. So for those of you who are unfamiliar with brown bread, it is probably known to you whole wheat bread. Anyway, there needs to be balance. There is white bread on one side and there is brown bread on the other. There is no balance if you are comparing white bread with whole wheat bread.

Thoughts?

Alex Cabot is not afraid to die!!!

2009-10-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

SVU. One of the greatest TV series of all has brought back one of it's missing link's. Alexandra Cabot is back. I'm glad the other drunk DA is now gone. She was not all that endearing. Casey Novak was a pretty good replacement, but who can argue with having Alex back. She's tough and always looks out for everyone. And she wins!

Alex Cabot is the best TV ADA ever!

Snoring Cures

2009-10-18T18:31:00.001-07:00

Does anyone know anything about snoring cures? My girlfriend is now cursing me under her breath as she never receives any sleep and drives her insane to hear my nose rumble throughout the night.

Or when I fall asleep on my amazing chair from Ikea.

And don't tell me to try Pure Sleep. I already tried that and that made my jaw sore. I lost many hours of sleep from that.

And those Breathe Right nose strips do not work either.

Does anybody have any ideas?