Yada, yada, yada

Just a few thoughts before I force myself to do some more work...

* Can spilled coffee kill a cell phone? I've left the sucker outside, overnight, in Hawaii, to be found in a puddle of morning dew the next day and it started working again. I dropped it in a sink full of water, and it started working again. But now, a few drops of coffee and its behaving like an alien. I've received multiple blank text messages, and am starting to get a little worried. Is it the caffeine? The Splenda? Would it have made a difference if it was Starbucks as opposed to homemade?

* Speaking of Starbucks, it has come to my attention that my sister passes by at least three Starbucks on her way to work. Now, for City folks, that doesn't sound too bad. After all, in Manhattan there's practically a Starbucks on every corner (that or a Duane Reade), but my sister doesn't live in the City, or even in the North. She lives in the middle of nowhere Virginia (to be fair, its only kinda in the middle of nowhere -- she's close to Charlottesville but goes the opposite direction to go to work). What ever happened to cute, independent coffee shops. I used to live above one (remember that place D-bud?) and it was nice to go someplace that wasn't a cookie cutter image of another. Ah well, progress...

* "TGIT" -- my firm's answer to Happy Hour is starting. What is TGIT, you ask? It's "Thank God Its Thursday" or more affectionately known as, "have a drink and some appetizers cause you know your ass is staying late tonight so you can leave at a decent hour tomorrow." Can't really complain - lord knows my last place of employment didn't have anything like this. They wanted you to work like a slave without a free beer once a week. At least the new place has its priorities straight. Free drinks make happy employees. It's a great philosophy.

* Speaking of free drinks, and my previous place of employ, last night I was out with a couple of folks I used to work with and a bartender at a Manhattan bar actually bought me a drink. I nearly fell off my stool. I guess miracles can happen.

DoNotCall This.

From New Jersey Lawyer Daily Briefing (email newsletter) 1/19/06:

DO NOT CALL — PHASE 2
Now that you’re smugly reassured your dinner won’t be interrupted by unsolicited sales calls, are you ready to get them on your cell phone? Yes, your cell phone. That’s about to happen at the beginning of February, unless you get in touch with the Do Not Call registry again. And to make matters worse, you can be charged for those incoming calls. Call the registry at 888-382-1222 accessed or log on to donotcall.gov. 1-18-06

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I'm sorry but that's bullshit. Do not call list or not - cell phone numbers should not be public; only people I give the number to should be allowed to call me since I have to pay for the minutes whether I want to or not. If they want to make cell phone numbers public, then incoming calls should not count against minutes. It's that fucking simple. If you want to be able to call me on my cell, and I did not personally give you the number, then you should pay for the fucking call, not me. Bullshit, I say, bullshit. Even if I register at the fucking donotcall site, the rules don't apply to everyone. All my numbers, cell phones included, are registered, and yet I still get calls. From "non-profits" that are exempt from the do not call laws. Of course, someone trying to sell me some crap, and someone trying to make me give money to a charity I've never heard of are equally annoying and disruptive in my book. Plus - now these fucking charities are going to be allowed to call my cell phone? And I have to pay for the call? That pisses me off. And I was having such a nice day so far, which was a good thing because I'm here until 9PM tonight (which means I also will miss my favorite yoga class). Now its not even 11AM, I have 10 more hours of work to go, and I'm in a bad mood. Ain't life grand. I'm thinking that maybe if I get any of these damn calls, I will send bills to the callers for the minutes expended by them. They probably won't pay, but maybe they won't call back either. All I know is sonething has to be done because the way things are now is complete, and utter bullshit.

Are The Wonder Years Back Too?

I believe a need a vacation. Granted I took one not that long ago, but here we are only 11 days into the new year and I find myself unable to concentrate or focus. Instead, I'm wandering about the internet, stopping at such exciting sites as CNN's Entertainment section where I learned utterly useless (and not particularly surprising) news such as Courtney Love lost a house to foreclosure, and Britney Spears topped Blackwell's Worst Dressed List (he actually called her an 'over-the-hill Lolita'!)

Of course I also got to learn that Fred Savage, the cutie-patootie from The Wonder Years has landed himself another acting job. This time, instead of playing a sweet little boy vying for the love of Winnie, "Savage portrays Mitch, the gay prodigal son, who returns home from a failed Hollywood career" in the new ABC sit-com Crumbs.

I gotta say -- he's still pretty handsome; he's definitely aged better than some other child prodigies... for example, the kid from Home Improvement was definitely a cuter kid than he is an adult, Bobby Brady is a little scary looking now, and even Britney's starting to look trashy and over the hill (see above).

Anyway -- my original question still stands. Since Fred Savage is back, does that mean the Wonder Years will come back too? Because I really did love that show. And it would definitely beat the crap that's been on lately (except of course for Project Runway). Not that I should really care -- I did, only a few days ago, resolve to watch less TV. Then again, I knew that would be tough. Besides, I don't think playing into the hand of nostalgia by watching re-runs of shows you were watching when you still lived at home count. Besides, that show was freaking awesome -- and yet they don't play the re-runs so I couldn't TiVo it even if I had TiVo, and you can't buy it on DVD (at least not the full run, unless you buy a totally bullshit/bootleg copy off the internet made at home by some dude who somehow managed to get his hands of tapes of all the shows). But maybe, just maybe, if this new Fred Savage show takes off (and given the way "gay TV" has been doing lately it may very well be a hit), the powers that be will recognize that if they're going to play re-runs of Home Improvement, they should also play the Wonder Years. At the very least, they should allow me to buy the damn re-runs on DVD from a respectable source, like oh I don't know the fucking network that showed it to begin with?

A New Year, A New Post

Once again, the holidays took over my life -- and I am only now getting back to normal. Not like I actually have a "normal", but ya know what I mean. Now I'm not a big believer in resolutions -- mostly because its rare that they are ever kept, but in the spirit of the season, here's a few I'll think about for now and probably eventually forget about ;)

1. Do more yoga (Namaste, my friends)
2. Cut down on swearing (I know, I know, when pigs fly...but ya gotta have hope)
3. Catch up with old friends (hey D-bud, that means you!!)
4. Read more and watch less TV (although with the Sopranos starting up again this is gonna be a toughie)
5. Work enough hours to get a bonus, but enough to qualify as a workaholic (this one actually has a chance because money is a major motivator!)
and of course,
6. Post Regularly!

Hope all my readers (ha, ha) had wonderful a wonderful holiday, whatever holiday that may be.