It's Valentine's Day so Make Sure you Love Someone or At Least Buy Them Something!

Ah, the good ole Valentine's Day is upon us again and you know what that means, it's time for my annual rant on how pointless Valentine's Day is.  I still don't get it and luckily I have a great wife who thinks mostly the same way I do.  We don't buy each other gifts, in fact this year I even got her to agree to a no cards rule.  I just simply explained that after I opened the card, I would hold onto it until Saturday then throw it in the garbage.  We're not in high school anymore, we don't have a shoe box full of love notes and cards we're saving to look at with our friends.  So no gifts, no cards just do what we normally do, which by the way is hang out and enjoy each other's company.

I just don't see the whole point of buying gifts, going out to a special dinner and cards.  I can do all those things any day of the year so why MUST I do it on February 14th?  Maybe it's because we have a kid now and getting a sitter is a pain in the ass during the week or maybe it's because we've been married for over 7 years and have spent so many romantic nights that doing it when we're "supposed" to feels awkward.  We go out to dinner all the time, have nights out by ourselves, I don't know, it's just crazy to me because we have this crazy date on the calendar I'm supposed to love my wife more today.

Hey guys, how about you love your wife/girlfriend/friend/family (whatever) EVERY day and not just go overboard on Valentine's Day?  Maybe it's me but I'm sick of this commerical made-up holiday.  I say it every year and I'm going to continue to say it.  I guess it's good for the economy and shit but it's sickening the amount of people that look at this day like it's a magical day and they should be loved more than usual.  Get over it.  Do what I do, boycott it.  Spend the night in with that special someone, cook a nice meal and enjoy a peaceful night of romance (by the way, you can do that every other night of the year as well).

Clapping After a Movie

One of my biggest pet peeves happened again yesterday.  The dreaded clapping at the end of a movie!  I don't fully understand what the clappers get out of the practice.  Do they understand that no one that made the movie is in attendance?  Do they think that I or my other fellow movie patrons actually care that they liked the movie enough to warrant an applause?  I've seen this so many times, it's pretty hard to count, actually I'm willing to bet that at about 90% of my movie theater experiences there has been clapping after the movie.  Well, maybe not, I've seen some real bombs at the movies but I'd say that 75-80% of the movies I see, some idiot or most likely idiots clap after the final scene.

I just don't get it.  Who are they clapping for?  The actors, director and producers aren't there.  The theater ushers waiting to clean up the eight dollar popcorn you barely finished don't give two shits about what you thought about the movie.  Believe me, I could care less!  It's not like if I was on the fence if the movie was good or not, I'm going to be swayed by your clapping.

Maybe it's me but it's time to stop clapping at the end of a movie.  Let's save the clapping for live events (sports, Broadway, etc.) and just file out of the theater and get on with our lives.

Perhaps I should start a new trend...Every time I hear clapping at the end of a movie I'm going to BOO loudly.  Even if I enjoyed the movie.  That way I could really piss off these people.  I'm sure that will spark some debate and best of all....FIGHTS!

Cocaine - It's one hell of a......song???

As I was listening to a local radio show last evening, Eric Clapton’s classic song “Cocaine” came on.  While I love the song, I thought to myself, why in the world would they play this song on the radio?  More than half the song will be blanked out.  Well you can imagine my confusion when the whole song played and they didn’t edit one word.  Not one!  Imagine if my seven year old son had been in the car.  I would’ve surely been asked, “Daddy, what is cocaine?”  Which would have been a very interesting talk at such a young age but I guess it’s never too early.

It got me thinking about other songs and other stations that play music and block out drug and sexual references.  For instance, the two local Hip Hop and R&B stations block out all marijuana, ecstasy and sexual references all the time. Sometimes a song comes on and more than half of the song is blanked out, it’s basically just one long instrumental.

Aren’t all radio stations following the same regulations?  I’m confused.  I’d hate to bring race into it but is it a black and white thing?  It can’t be that the Eric Clapton song is portraying cocaine as being bad because the song glorifies it the same as most rap/r&b songs.  The only thing I can think of is that it’s from a different era and therefore it’s a “classic” and can be played as an oldie.  Either way it’s on the radio waves for children to hear and I’d like to see similar radio sanctions across the board.

Truthfully, I’d like to see less or no restrictions but that’s the United States and we’ll have to deal with it.  My problem is if you’re going to edit weed and sex, then you better mute Eric Clapton declaring his love for cocaine.

Maybe it’s me but the radio stations clearly want you to do cocaine and not smoke weed while having sex with a bad a*$ bi$#h.  Sorry for the censorship, this must be a hip hop / r&b station.

Your thoughts?

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

Have you seen the news today about an author and special ed teacher that claims Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer promotes bullying?  Here’s an article that discusses the claims made by this “professor”.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer-bullying-fox_n_1129731.html

I’ve been watching this Christmas Special for my entire existence.  Every Christmas for the past 30 years I have watched this movie at the very least once a year, now that I have a child, probably closer to two times a year.  Not once have I every thought, wow, Comet and Santa are really giving it to Rudolph.  Not once have I ever said shame on you Comet for bullying poor old Rudolph and damn you Santa for not reprimanding him.

I’ve realized that the Comet and the other reindeers were making fun of Rudolph because he was different but they weren’t bullying.  No one punched Rudolph in the gut and said he wanted his lunch money.  No one flushed his head down a toilet.  Not once did I say to myself, holy shit Comet is setting a bad example for my child by picking on Rudolph.

You know why I never thought of those things?  It’s because the whole story is about Rudolph over coming the mocking and ridiculing to become “the greatest reindeer of all.”  I guess I always so it as an underdog story and how despite not looking the same, he overcame that and became the hero. To take out the other reindeers picking on Rudolph and not accepting him would be to RUIN the story of the underdog against all odds.

Lastly, I think we are going a little too crazy with the whole censorship of children materials.  Kids aren’t as gullible or stupid as the media claims them to be.  My child isn’t going to go to school and become a bully because he wants to be like Comet from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  What’s next editing out Charlie Brown’s Christmas so they don’t mock Charlie Brown at the end saying his tree is stupid?  Really, this author/professor has a problem with Rudolph?  God help us if he re-watches Charlie Brown Christmas.  I just watched that two nights ago and the children mock, ridicule and call Charlie Brown names pretty much the duration of the special.

Maybe it’s me but we need to leave Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer alone.  Keep it as the underdog story that it is.  We need to stop pretending our children are so stupid that a Christmas special from 1964 is influencing them into a world of bullying.  Our kids are listening to the story of how it’s ok to be different and rooting for Rudolph, not sad because Comet is mean to him.

Christmas Cards

Christmas Season is upon us and my wife and I are in the midst of a disagreement about Christmas Cards.  I say, screw it, let’s not send any out this year and she’s at the opposite end of the spectrum and says it would be rude not to send any out.  Since I want to keep a happy household, I agreed to send them out this year but only if it’s a picture of Pete or the family.  We agreed that perhaps only Pete this year since last year we had a family picture.

I agreed to a picture card or nothing because if we just sent out a card with our signed names, people are just going to throw them away.  You know how I know that?  Well, because I do it.  You send me a generic Christmas card with Happy Holidays or Merry Chirstmas and just sign your name with no picture, personal note or anything; I’ll tell you right now where it’s being filed…The Garbage Can.  If it has a picture, I’ll keep it with our photos or if it has a personal message, then maybe I’ll call you and thank you or write you back, but if you just buy and send out a generic ass card and sign it, love the so & so’s, it’s trash time.

If you’re going to be lazy about it, then why bother?  I’m with those people though, why bother?  If I was alone, living by myself I wouldn’t send out Christmas cards, I guess my friends and family should be happy I have a wife that takes the time to take a picture, order cards and send them out every year because truthfully I wouldn’t waste my time.  I know it’s tradition but it’s a dumb tradition.  I can’t tell you how many Christmas cards I get from people that I don’t really ever see.  If the only contact we have is a generic Christmas card every year I think it’s time to re-evaluate our relationship.

Like I said, I’m all for Christmas cards with some thought or a picture of the family or a loved one but if you’re going to be lazy and just sign a bunch of cards, maybe it’s me but save the time, ink and paper and just don’t bother!  I wouldn’t!

Lending Friends Money...

Have you ever borrowed or let a friend borrow some money?  How’d that situation turn out?  Most likely it either ended badly or made the friendship uncomfortable to the point where you don’t hang out or get together as much as you want or should.  Luckily, I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve had to borrow some money from a friend, I just borrow from the many other sources out there (thank you Visa and American Express…).  However, I have let friends borrow money and it never ends well.

The biggest problem I believe is the uncomfortable feeling that surrounds asking for the money back or what to do when someone doesn’t pay you back.  I won’t name people but I recently let someone borrow a large sum of money, but stupid me didn’t discuss payback times or options.  I figured that this friend was a stand-up person and it wouldn’t really come to that.  My friend seemed grateful and said they’d get it to me ASAP.  There were a lot of things going on in their life but they were adamant about it saying they’d get it to me when the have it.  Well, it’s been almost three months and not even a whimper about the cash.  Now, I’m stuck in a sticky situation where I have to bring it up and discuss how they plan on getting me the money without ruining the friendship or making our time together uncomfortable after I get the money.

I guess I wouldn’t really be concerned if my friends spending habits hadn’t changed in the past few months.  Not only has my friend been on numerous vacations, but they are also planning other vacations for the fall/winter.  Now every time my friend opens their mouth and discusses a vacation or new purchase, I just get angry and now have come to the point where I have to be a debt collector and start turning the situation ugly.

My biggest problem with this is really not the money.  It’s the common courteously.  If I knew I owed someone money, it would be a priority to pay them back.  I wouldn’t be out gallivanting around knowing I owe someone a substantial amount of money, I would be figuring out how to pay them back even if it meant paying them a little every week or month.  I’m the type of person that if I had to borrow, I would make sure I got them the cash as soon as possible.  Due to the friendship, I would want to make it square as soon as I could to avoid killing the relationship or making anyone uncomfortable.

The ultimate lesson in this whole mess is to never lend money to friends but its hard not to in certain situations.  Since they’re your friends, you want to “help” as much as possible but at the same time, you can’t just be handing out money all the time.  There should a friendship courteously that goes with lending money to friends that the ultimate goal in paying it back is to make sure that no one’s uncomfortable.  Maybe it’s me but if you owe friends money, it’s in your best effort to handle the situation as smooth as possible and pay back the money as fast as you can.  It’s just the right thing to do…

Don't Let An Accident Take the Magic Away!

There is something magical about catching a baseball at a ballgame, something so magical that grown men crave it just as much as children.  People will sacrifice $10 beers; catch balls with babies in their arms, and fight over the ball as if it was a gold bar worth millions of dollars.  When one gets a ball, they hold it up in triumph as if it were a trophy; the crowd applauds and sometimes cheers.  The pursuit and catching a ball inside a stadium is noble and awe-inspiring.

Which makes what happened last week at a Texas Rangers game just awful.  I’m sure many of you know the horrific details so I won’t get into them but in a nutshell, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers threw up a foul ball to a fan by the name of Shannon Stone.  He was trying to get the ball for his 6 year old son and leaned over too far and fell about 20 feet and died from his injuries of the fall.  It wasn’t Hamilton’s fault, it wasn’t Stone’s fault, and it simply was a horrible horrible mistake.  Player’s do this all the time, its part of the charm of baseball, and fans love it.  It’s taking a piece of tradition home with you from the stadium.

I’m sure in the moments before the fall, this man was indescribably happy.  He was going to catch a baseball from one of the best players in the game and hand it to his son who would have a great story to tell all his friends for the rest of his life.  Unfortunately the ball came up short and to no one’s fault an accident occurred.  It’s a shame too because now, a six year old has to grow up without a father and Josh Hamilton, who’s been through a lot himself, has to have this on his conscience for the rest of his life.  It’s unfair really, to all those involved but again we have to see this how it is, a horrible awful accident.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve stressed how this was an accident pretty hardcore in this blog entry.  My point to it all is that we can’t change something that is so great about the game of baseball because of a horrible accident.  Maybe it’s me but we can’t let this accident stop players from interacting with fans and take away the magic that makes baseball one of the best sports and entertainment out there.

This type of thing hardly ever happens in stadiums and if it does, it’s usually a fan’s drunken stupor that leads to it.  Kind of like the incident at Coors Field earlier this year when a drunken idiot tried to slide down an escalator and fell to his death.  Even those incidents are far and in between.  Should we stop fan interaction and getting a ball from your favorite because of one senseless accident?  Absolutely not!

I’ve never been lucky enough to get a foul ball at a stadium or even have a player toss one up to me.  Do you think that this incident will stop me from trying?  Heck no, in fact, I’ll keep trying to get a souvenir for my son just like Mr. Stone I’m sure would have kept trying had he lived through this accident.  Perhaps stadiums should look into railings around the ballpark and re-access how tall they are but at the same time, let’s not go overboard here.  It’s not like we’re talking about hundreds of people falling out of the stands.  Let’s call it what it was, an accident and just pray and hope it never happens again.

Next time you attend a baseball game, look around you.  See how many people have gloves at the game.  Not just kids either, they’ll be tons of adults with glove.  Let’s not take that away, let’s keep the magic of getting a baseball at the stadium intact!