funny looking animal of the week!

long island edition!
courtesy of rpalmes1

a brilliant idea

Kate Gosselin and Octomom should be each other for Halloween.

twitter facts

twitter why can't I stop hearing about you?

Miserable Marci’s Monday Rant – da bills

The Bills officially are the worst team in football this season. But no, you may say, what about the Rams, who haven't even won a game this season, or the Bucs, who the Bills actually managed to beat? It doesn't matter. The Bills are worse.

During halftime of the game, the sportscasters were doing the recaps of all the NFL games of the day, and when they got to the Bills/Browns game, they literally said, "What a miserable football game." And that was just the first half.

I don't even have the energy to bitch about them today. That's how bad it was. I mean, when you lose to the Cleveland Browns with a score of 6-3, that's saying something about how much you suck. When you have the ball in field goal range and it's 4th and 26 in the first half, maybe you should GO FOR THE FIELD GOAL. Even if it's windy. I think Lindell has a better chance of battling the winds then the Bills' offense has getting 26 yards in one play. Or 26 yards in one half.

Here are some other miserable tidbits from yesterday's game:

• Prior to yesterday's game, Cleveland was on a 10 game losing streak


• Buffalo has lost 12 of their last 15 games


• The Bills have lost their last two games to previously winless teams


• Buffalo had 9 false-starts in yesterday's game, in total they were flagged 13 times for 75 yards


• The Browns only had 2 completions in yesterday's game. And still beat us


• The Bills have only scored 20 points combined in their last 3 games


• Buffalo lost another defensive starter in yesterday's game, Kawika Mitchell, upping the running total of injured defensive starters to 5

I don't think I want to even watch any more games.


....go bills.

one week...

...until this

Freaky Friday....update

Today I walked by the red sweatsuit kid and he was wearing...

A SHIRT AND TIE!


What a day...

awesome looking animal of the week.

via national geographic.

lunch break

Miserable Marci’s Monday Rant – the kid in the red sweats.

As I walk to the PATH station every morning, sometimes I notice my surroundings despite my morning stupor. And one morning, as I walked down the street, I noticed this little Indian boy, probably like 7 years old, walking with his mother on what I'm assuming is the way to school. He was wearing a red long sleeved shirt. And red sweatpants. I thought to myself - will this kid get made fun of? He's wearing matching sweats to school. Then I put it out of my mind and continued on my day.

Imagine my growing concern as I continued to see this child on an almost daily basis, and he continued to wear red sweat pants and a red long sleeved shirt. The kid hasn't changed out of this outfit at all! How can his mother let him do that?! Is he just a figment of my imagination? Could that sweatsuit possibly be a weird school uniform?

What is going on! Needless to say, this poor defenseless boy's outfit really made me mad. Sure, he's seven years old, and yes, I probably wore worse things when I was little, but not the SAME SHITTY THING EVERY DAY!

The kid needs to be spoken to. Or donated other pieces of clothing, perhaps. I need to start a clothing line like TOMS shoes, where whenever I sell an item, the red sweatsuit kid gets a new article of clothing. But until then, ol'Red Sweats will be walking down the street to greet me every morning...

end rant.

cute kids and sports movies... a few of my favorite things

This four year old boy memorized the entire speech from the movie Miracle. I hope my kids are this awesome.

funny looking animal of the week!

i am absurdly proud to have been twitterpic'ed by someone I don't know.

Someone I've never met posted this picture of me, Mallory and Mayo to TwitPic. Apparently he goes to IC now, and found this in the college's photo database?

I do not really remember who took this photo or why...but I think the real question is, why isn't IC using this gem in all of their marketing collateral? I guess it's lacking the obligatory kid in a wheelchair and native american, but I'm pretty tan in this photo, I could pass.

fattest baby ever!

Almost 20 pounds of joy here people.


Like baby Colleen!

(thanks to Hoover for finding this)

women are unhappy.

Maureen Dowd's article in the NYTimes about the happiness of women around the world gives us ladies some big time Debbie Downer news:

“Women have lives that become increasingly empty,” Buckingham said. “They’re doing more and feeling less.”

Cue wah wahhhh sound effect.

Dowd talks about how as the gender gap closed, women were given more and shit to do and think about. For instance, Dowd says, "if they once judged themselves on looks, kids, hubbies, gardens and dinner parties, now they judge themselves on looks, kids, hubbies, gardens, dinner parties — and grad school, work, office deadlines and meshing a two-career marriage."

That's a lot to think about. And great news for all the women in the world.

But there is a solution, perhaps... The article mentions:

“Across the happiness data, the one thing in life that will make you less happy is having children,” said Betsey Stevenson, an assistant professor at Wharton who co-wrote a paper called “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness.” “It’s true whether you’re wealthy or poor, if you have kids late or kids early. Yet I know very few people who would tell me they wish they hadn’t had kids or who would tell me they feel their kids were the destroyer of their happiness.”

Kids really do ruin your life. It's been proven by research.

....sorry Mom.

go get 'em olive oil

via ffffound

assist to the fans

What the Bucs coach had to say about Sunday's loss to the Bills:

“We got hurt with penalties on offense. This is a loud place and we knew that all week. The false starts hurt us and stopped a couple drives. The crowd noise was definitely a factor. Discipline was an issue and we need to clean it up.”

I helped the Bills win! Put me on your fantasy football team, stat.

"busy" g chat status

Today I conducted an unofficial study that asked the question:

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the busiest), how busy are you?

The question was asked to a 3 person sample that had indicated on their g chat status that they were, in fact, "busy."

The mean answer was: 7.3 repeating.


Keep this in mind next time you chat someone who is busy, because in the words of g chat, "you may be interrupting."

funny looking animal of the week!

Miserable Marci’s Monday Rant – women and children first.

I went to the Buffalo Bills game yesterday, which was amazing. But one thing that WAS NOT amazing was getting into the stadium. Sure, there will always be a lot of people waiting to get into a large sporting event, but at the Bills stadium they make men and women separate to go into the stadium.

What year is this? I mean I can see that they don’t want a big lawsuit for a security man poppin’ a feel on some lady Bills fanatic, but honestly most of the people going in there are so drunk they wouldn’t know the difference. Instead, they have ONE WOMAN guard to search every single female entering through that specific gate.

This system is flawed for many reasons. The first being that if you are in a group with both men AND women (gasp!), you have to separate and lose each other through the crowd in order to get in the stadium. I for one found that irritating. After successfully making our way through the parking lot with our group intact, despite pausing constantly to yell praises of fans wearing jerseys that matched our own, or to be utterly confused about the guy in the Eagles shirt, we were forced to separate right before we made it to our destination.

Another reason the system is STUPID is the fact that they only have one woman guard at each gate. And like, five male guards. And since a lot of women actually go to Bills games, this means all the men get to enter the stadium rather quickly, while the women’s line goes back and back and back and CAT FIGHTS ensue as the ladies vie for position on line.

And Buffalo women are tough cookies. Putting a bunch of drunk Buffalo ladies into an essential bottleneck where they are constantly getting shoved into the person in front of them is just asking for a fight to break out. It’s like dangling meat in front of two pitbulls. Or letting Michael Vick dogsit.

It just doesn’t make sense. Ralph Wilson, I know when you were young girls weren’t even allowed to go to school and electricity wasn’t invented yet, but please change this security policy!

I mean, it probably wouldn’t bother Hasidic Jews so much, but since their numbers in Buffalo aren’t so high, maybe the Bills shouldn’t be so uptight about male guards checkin’ out the ladies.

End rant.

spoiler alert?

found this on craigslist:


Is someone in SATC2 having twins? My money's on Samantha. She would be the worst mom ever.

use two hands to double your pleasure and double your fun.

tolerance

Heard Kofi Annan speak at UB last night. His first speech was well thought and elegant, but spoke of broader overarching themes that although would be ideal, are hard for the average person to relate to and act upon.

Once the question and answer session began, Kofi was able to use more specific examples to make his points and teach his lessons.

Given the question: "What one thing can every average person do to help create peace in the world?"

Tolerance.

Tolerance, empathy and to be engaged in what's happening in the world.

funny looking animal of the week!

by Chris McVeigh

that horrible familiar feeling is back...

Just got home from watching the Bills lose. Again. As a Bills fan you kinda forget what it feels like every year, but then it happens again and it sucks. So frustrating.

You go into a game not expecting anything at all except a blowout, and think "well at least I'll drink a few beers have a slice of pizza and have some fun." Then the Bills decide to start playing like a team who knows how to score. Even the defense makes big plays. Then things start getting crazy. The Bills shout song rings in your ears, and you can't help but dance, throw high fives all around, and text your nay sayers with taunting words.

Then the clock ticks down. Just like always. And usually we're winning by less than a TD when we let the opposing team drive down and beat us at the end. But tonight, we let the Pats do even better than that.

We were winning by two possessions. And we let them come back and beat us. BY ONE POINT. THANKS TO A FUMBLE. On a kickoff where we just NEEDED TO TAKE A KNEE.

And even though my heart is being torn up inside of me, there is something important that everyone should remember:

The Bills were supposed to get blown out tonight. They should have lost by at least 20 points. And yet the Patriots, with MIGHTY Tom Brady, risen from the injury dead, had to claw their way back to beat us by just one little point. That's pretty embarrassing.

And as the ESPN announcers flip-flopped back and forth, first talking about how atrocious the Bills were, then talking about how much they liked the Bills once they started winning (fair weather fans indeed), I knew that no matter what the outcome... even if it ended as badly as it did tonight...even if i wish those arrogant Pats fans could have all gone home with the knowledge that they just lost to the Buffalo Billls... that this was an important game.

Because we only lost by one to the Pats. And we lost on a dumb, dumb play.

Imagine what happens next.

I think 3-13 haiku prediction guy should be feeling a little worried right now.

GO BILLS.

a little piece of business advice

bad bills forecast

Some guy on espn.com predicts the NFL season using haikus. At first I was kind of amused, until I read what he wrote for the Bills (who he predicted to finish last in their division):

Rebuilding for tenth
straight year. Are shovel-ready.
The Buffalo Bills.

What a horrible haiku.

He also predicted that the Bills would only win three games this season, going 3-13. Come on...even the Bills aren't that bad.

I've written a little haiku about this prediction:

You are wrong, you douche.
Nobody circles wagons
Like Buffalo Bills.

a LOST WORLD

Scientists in Papua New Guinea ventured into a remote volcanic crater and discovered a basically lost world, untouched by humans for 200,000 years. They found over 40 new species of animals, which is pretty incredible considering how small it feels the world is becoming. Maybe it's because I'm a nerd, but I got kind of excited when I read about this.

Cause when you're little and you learn about all the different animals of the world it's so fascinating, and now it seems like there's not a lot left to discover in the natural world.

But there was! The scientists found 14 new species of frogs, a new kind of bat and a GIANT RAT species! Word on the street is these rats are as big as cats. GROSS! They also apparently were not afraid of humans, which made the scientists believe this habitat really hasn't been touched by humans in the last 200,000 years.

Here are some photos of what they found (photos courtesy of The Guardian):


a fruit dove


the HUGE wooly rat!


common tube nosed bat


an endangered frog


Read the full article here.

funny looking animal of the week!

one of the biggest debates of all time

Did Dottie drop the ball on purpose?


I think so. Discuss, discuss...

Gmail server down - CRISIS

Yesterday for approximately one to two hours the gmail server was down. As a result, people could not sign on to check their mail or gchat. GASP.

The reaction to this was a little like when Michael Jackson died. I got a text message from my friend about it, an IM from my office mate, and someone actually walked up and asked me about it as well. People everywhere were freaking out. If gchat is down, how are you supposed to avoid doing work?

Thankfully, the server seemed to right itself after only about an hour of mild anxiety bordering on the verge of excruciating stress. We needed a gmail fix.

Yesterday we all learned a very important fact - gmail is like crack. And thank god it's back.

On an unrelated note: the apples from the organic Asian market taste so much better than the ones from Shop Rite.

badass looking animal of the week!

Is this polar bear eating the remains of a whale? Or some other giant creature? Either way, it's mouth is blood stained. That's pretty badass.

photo via National Geographic

it's possible to be polite and badass at the same time

71 year old Dawn Fraser, who is a four-time Olympic gold medalist for swimming, fought off a man who tried to rob her today. The best thing about it (besides the fact that she wasn't robbed), was what she had to say about the incident:

"He threatened my life and I got really annoyed about that and just grabbed him by the ear and the hair."

Cool as a cucumber.

heard it on a conference call

"The Internet connection's really spotty here."

- our client (an Internet service)

Funny looking animal of the week!

Allentown edition
(Mal's dog!)

the results are in!

Apparently if you Google search "dork nerd geek" the first link that appears is a test to let you know which one you are. I just wanted to know the difference between them, and now I know which I am!!!

I just took an online test to see if I was a Nerd, a Dork, or a Geek.

And it seems as if I am.... A NERD!

Here was my result: 52% Nerd, 26% Geek, 35% Dork. Making me a "Pure Nerd."

Take the test for yourself here.
(Don't worry you don't have to sign up for that dating site to get your result)

funny looking animal of the week!

funny signs from town hall protests

Via the Huffington Post.

Check them out here.

you know what he did?

twitter names. taken.

Today I got one step closer to signing up for Twitter. I JUST CAN'T STAY AWAY. But as I sat pondering what my username should be, I realized that if I typed something in, it would let me know if that name was available or not. This led me to become sidetracked, entering in absurd usernames and seeing if they were taken.

NOTE TO THE WORLD!
If you are thinking about joining Twitter, I apologize, because these usernames are already taken:

poop your pants
weiner
dbag
fishtacos
3some
cameltoe


These names, however, are available:

trolleater
dapeepee


Better hurry if you wanna get one of them, I hear they go fast.

hehe

workin' for the weekend...

Sheepwalking

Seth Godin talks about a behavior he calls "sheepwalking" on his blog and in his book "Tribes:"

"I define "sheepwalking" as the outcome of hiring people who have been raised to be obedient and giving them a braindead job and enough fear to keep them in line."

He talks about how people are made to act effectively as sheep, reporting to their jobs every day and just doing what is expected of them, staying completely within the boundaries already established in business. But what if these boundaries are really just limiting potential of employees, as well as the companies they work for?

But how can be combat the epidemic of sheepwalking? Godin has some ideas:

"Step one is to give the problem a name. Done. Step two is for anyone who sees themself in this mirror to realize that you can always stop. You can always claim the career you deserve merely by refusing to walk down the same path as everyone else just because everyone else is already doing it.

The biggest step, though, comes from anyone who teaches or hires. And that's to embrace non-sheep behavior, to reward it and cherish it. As we've seen just about everywhere there's been growth lately, that's where the good stuff happens."


Read the entire post on sheepwalking here. And check out Godin's book Tribes. It kind of made me feel the way I used to in college - like I really could be successful and do something I love...

why Adrian Beltre is on the DL .... again ...

Beltre was placed on the 15-day disabled list Thursday with an injured testicle, the Associated Press reports.

Spin: Guys, you might not want to read the details on this one. Beltre took a one-hopper to the groin area in the ninth inning Wednesday, yet managed to play out the remainder of the 14-inning game. However, he may now need surgery due to bleeding in the testicle, which would put him out indefinitely.

yeesh, sorry guy.

heard it babysitting

"wanna see what i made?"

shows me this little fish tank with plastic fish inside.

"those are REAL fake fish."

:)

funny looking animal of the week!

Bills lose first preseason matchup, look sharp.

Last night the Buffalo Bills took the field for their first preseason game of the year! And boy, did they not do well. Granted, your starters are only in there for 2 or 3 possessions, but in that time we managed to let the Titans score on a FAKE PUNT and throw an interception.

But the Buffalo News did highlight the silver lining of the outing nicely:

On the positive side, Terrell Owens caught two passes for 27 yards in a nine-play debut for the Bills, no Bills starting players sustained any injuries and the Bills' white throwback jerseys looked sharp.

I agree with the showing from TO being a good thing, it was nice to see him out there gettin' things done. But if the only bright side of our preseason game is the fact that we looked good in our uniforms, then I'm a little worried about this season. I mean, we can't wear those throwbacks every week. What will the redeeming quality of all our other losses be?

I guess I shouldn't be too worried. Because really, you can't really predict too much about a season from preseason game number one. Thank goodness.

And the Bills are going to the Super Bowl!

the Dr. Seuss you may not know...

Have you ever seen a Dr. Seuss art exhibit? They are pretty amazing - animations of wonderful creatures from his books, other illustrations you wouldn't think Dr. Seuss would do, and then these:








They are pretty wonderful I think. Enjoy.

security via Segue.

The security guard in front of our office rides a Segue. He wears a Security Guard outfit, military boots, and a bike helmet. Why does he need a Segue? It doesn’t really make him more intimidating, and the helmet must be annoying to wear all day. And let’s say someone is causing a ruckus and the security guard needs to step in. The amount of space he needs to cover is one block. That means even if he’s standing on one end of the block, and a ruckus starts to occur at the other end of the block, the amount of time it would take him to Segue over there isn’t significantly faster than how long it would take him to run. Especially since he would have to weave his Segue through all the pedestrians walking on the sidewalk.

I think he really wanted the Segue because his job was boring. Now instead of just standing outside all day, he gets to ride around on a Segue all day. And get paid for it. What the heck am I doing all the way up here on the 36th floor? I could totally be riding a Segue around in the sun and be getting paid for it.

And now for your pleasure, a Debbie Downer rant.

Wahhh wahhhh.

Today’s subject: Women who don’t know how to behave in the gym locker room.

Today in the locker room after my work out the ONE OTHER WOMAN in the room chose to use the locker directly next to me, both limiting my space and making me uncomfortable once she sat down on the bench and began eating some fruit out of a small Tupperware container as I dried off from my shower and changed. It was like she was at the movies, only instead of popcorn she had fruit, and instead of watching trailers she was getting a nice look at my rack. I wanted to say something to her, but she’s not the only guilty one.

Almost every day at the gym, these women are there. These women who for some reason like to hang out in the locker room. Most of the time the culprits are held up by some really, really important cell phone conversation. Like the day one woman, we’ll call her “Sally,” was sitting on a bench in the locker room talking on her phone when I arrived to work out. I changed, worked out, showered, changed back into my clothes and left the gym as Sally carried on her conversation. Sally, come on! If you have such an important, long telephone conversation, why do you want to do it in a room full of naked, sweaty women (and note to all the men reading this, I don’t think Sally was there for the show).

But Sally’s not the only one. So many people talk on their cell phones in the locker room it’s like a big phone booth. I get it if you’re saying “oh, well I just got to the gym, bye luv yaaazzzz” but if you’re having a 15 minute conversation, you should take it elsewhere, ladies.

Here are some simple rules about locker room etiquette:

1. If you know you are going to be on a long telephone call, don’t go to the gym. There are far better places to have a business or personal conversation than in the middle of a locker room – and it can’t be comfortable to sit on those benches for a long time.

2. If you think you’re going to need to eat something – do it before you’re in the locker room.

3. If you want to walk around naked, GO FOR IT GIRL. I just won’t be joining you.

4. If you are one of the only people in the locker room, choose a locker that doesn’t border one of the ones already being used.


I think if people follow these little tips, it will make for a much better changing experience for everyone involved.

up up and away!

via flickr

funny looking animal of the week!

Superbowls, guns, and sweatpants. Oh my.

Former Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress has been indicted on weapons charges that stemmed from the night he shot himself in the leg last year. Everything is looking down for Plax now. I mean at one point he caught the winning touchdown in a Super Bowl. Now he probably would trade that in for a Scott Norwood “Wide Right” than have to live with his current situation (well…maybe not quite).

Let’s take a look at all the things gone wrong in Plax’s life:

• Facing up to 3.5 years in jail
  
• Trading in a Giants jersey for a prison uni
  
• He shot himself in the leg
  
• He may go to jail for shooting himself in the leg
  

Let’s take a look at the reasons things have gone wrong:
Reason #3: he had a gun on him when he shouldn’t have.
Reason #2: he tucked said gun into his sweatpants.
Reason #1: he wore sweatpants to a club. Come on, Plax! Show some self respect. We know you can afford at least jeans.

Moral:
If carrying a gun in a club, do not rely on the elastic band of your sweatpants to keep it concealed.

beautiful

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

People love themselves.

Marketers must remember this. That is why viral Internet campaigns work so well when they include the viewer. For example, the “Elf Yourself” campaign from OfficeMax was WILDLY successful? But why? Is it because around the holidays people found a newfound affinity for buying office supplies? NO, I tell you! People love themselves. And they find it so amusing to cut out their heads and stick them on dancing elves.

But it’s not just elves that people like to see their heads on. There was the site where you could put yourself on the people dancing to the Scissor Sisters, a site where you can “Scrooge Yourself,” and most recently, a site where you can “Mad Men Yourself” (for an example of that, please refer to my previous post).

People not only enjoy these sites, but send their result to their friends, or post it on their Web page. Right now, two people I know have their Mad Men selves reppin’ them on Twitter, and my brother’s Mad Men dude is his Facebook picture. These sites have the power to be viral and powerful and get people talking.

And it’s all based on the fundamental theory that people love themselves. That’s why celebs Tweet, it’s why people Mad Men themselves, and it’s why people have to look in the mirror at themselves for at least 10 minutes before going to bed each night … maybe that’s just me.

But honestly, if you’re a marketer, your job is to trick people into doing what you want them to. What better way to do it than by distracting them with the thing they love most in the world (themselves) as they interact with your brand?

Food for thought.

That’s all for now, I have to go look in a mirror for a few minutes.

fine, I Mad Men'ed myself...

I'm the one standing awkwardly in the middle holding a cocktail. Look at Don Draper look at me. Like he wants to take that dress right off me...

Make your own Mad Men self here.

Starbury TV…

Stephon Marbury, if anyone is unfamiliar, played in the NBA for 13 seasons, and has his own affordable STARBURY basketball sneaker line. Now he can add crazy to his resume. The athlete’s meltdown has been documented (by himself) through streaming video on the Web, including moments of him singing, crying, and apparently eating Vaseline.

It makes you wonder why. Some articles say Marbury doesn’t know what to do with himself now that his basketball career is over, some say his ego is so huge that he can’t stop broadcasting himself. But I know other professional athletes that have found things to do after retirement (it can’t be that hard when you’re rolling in $$$). I also know other professional athletes that have huge egos yet don’t broadcast themselves going crazy on the Internets (TO, Ocho Cinco…)

This is yet another instance of a celeb on the Internet sharing their personal life (maybe too much of it) with fans. It’s such a weird phenomenon to me. I mean honestly, what’s the need for paparazzi when you have stars taking far more intimate videos of themselves and posting them for the world to see? Some of the most intimate (and disturbing) videos of celebrities have been shot by the stars themselves (or family/friends of stars), and posted online. Take the Britney Spears video where she’s obviously high on something, talking about time travel with her boo, K Fed. Or the David Hasselhoff video taken by his own daughter, where he is so drunk he is having trouble eating a cheeseburger. The paparazzi better watch out, their jobs are being taken by celebs themselves.

As for Stephon Marbury, if this really is a “cry for help,” as many speculate, I hope it brings the help he needs to stop eating lube. But the whole ordeal brings a greater issue to light—why do celebs post online video? I guess we can just suffice it to say, as they do in the tabloids, “STARS – THEY’RE JUST LIKE US.”

wish i was here.

Javier Serrano photography

funny looking animal of the week!

screen addiction

I have often thought that it was kind of weird how much time we spend looking at various screens throughout the day. It’s like you go from screen to screen until you go to sleep. At work you may stare at a computer screen for many (tedious) hours until you finally get to leave to go home and stare at your television screen, taking breaks to glance down at your cell phone screen to see the time or read a text message...it’s weird.

Stephen King wrote an interesting article about “Screen Addiction” in the last issue of Entertainment Weekly. I guess there was a study that found that the average American adult spends 8.5 hours a day staring at various screens. THAT’S CRAZY.

That’s all. Happy Monday, let the screen staring begin…

man of the hour

Congratulations to MARK BUEHRLE, my namesake and pitcher for the Chicago White Sox - You're having the best week ever!

Yesterday Buehrle threw a perfect game, only the 18th perfect game in MLB history. And... he's just an average guy, says espn writer Jon Greenburg:

"How does Mark Buehrle do it?

Look at him. He's a monster-truck-driving, deer-hunting, self-proclaimed country boy who strains to hit 90 on the radar gun and was picked in the 38th round of the 1998 amateur baseball draft."


I also liked this line from the article:

"For the guys out there with love handles and three days of scruff, Buehrle is your kind of guy. His coaches get on him for his offseason conditioning, which consists of watching his kids play, deer hunting, and jogs to and from the fridge. He's a real person. He loves to catch those ceremonial first pitches, and he comes to work nearly every day in cargo shorts and a T-shirt."


Come on, the guy just achieved a huge professional sporting feat, and you're rippin' on his love handles? (there was going to be more to this paragraph but I censored myself. just use your dirty imaginations and love handles...)

Buehlre was also aided by an amazing catch by Dewayne Wise, who robbed a homer from beyond the fence in the beginning of the 9th inning to preserve the perfect game. He's having the second best week ever!


Nice job, Mark Buehlre...I hope people with similar names can have similar outcomes in life - average, yet spectacular.

wondermilk shop & cafe in Malaysia. I wish it was closer because it seems awesome.

a glimpse of celeb tweets

I've been watching this Twitter phenomenon from afar, I'm too scared to jump into it, even though I find myself sometimes thinking what I would say at a given moment if I had a Twitter account (example: picture of Ithaca woods on my day off with the caption "much better than the 36 floor"). Then I realize whatever I wrote would be stupid. Twitter makes me so nervous!

But it's amazing how many people follow celebs on Twitter. And kind of funny that celebs want to be followed. Usually they try to stay away from the public eye and now they are asking people to follow their daily thoughts and lives.

I decided to see how popular celebs who Twittered are, so I did some research and came up with this chart of a few hand picked celebrities and how many followers they each have:



As you can see, Ashton Kutcher is very popular. So is his cougar of a wife, but not quite AS popular. And Miley seems to have a lot of tweens following her escapades. Like today, she went to Bible study with the girls. I wonder what Bible study is code for...

There really was no point to this, except for you to see how many people follow certain celebs. And if you look at this chart and apply the results to reality tv, I think Shaq's future reality show will be a lot more successful than the current T.O. show.

i want to go to there

500 Days of Summer looks like it's going to be a good one, I really want to see it. From what I've read, it chronicles the 500 day long relationship of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character Tom, to "free-spirited" Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel. But it's not your traditional rom-com, with the formulaic meeting, courting, falling for each other, break up and eventual reunion of lovers. Instead, the movie flutters about through the 500 days in Tom and Summer's relationship, so you may witness a scene from day 97, then skip back to day 5. Kind of a cool way to do it.

Some other perks of this movie:
- there's a musical number (which I think may be reminiscent to another great scene in one of my favs, Get Over It)
- apparently it's got a great soundtrack
- there's a split screen sequence which shows the way something really happened, and the way that Tom wanted it to happen (kind of like at the end of Wayne's World when you get to choose your own ending)
- it has nice posters. ha what an advertising nerd I am...

So check it out if you're up for something that doesn't have robots, super heroes, wizards, or quasi-gay foreigners.

nice stuff

-click to see larger view-


anak krakatau

wear sunscreen

I got burned real bad about a month ago, and somewhere between the most painful showers of my life and the point where my entire torso peeled off my body (so hot, I know), I thought to myself, "should have worn sunscreen." Now, I am your classic jackass who never wears sunscreen and usually doesn't burn. Sure, maybe I had a weird sun-induced fungus on my chest once, prompting many an interesting nickname, but besides that I've been good so far. I guess the real repercussions won't hit until around the age of 40 anyways, but I'll just have to be on mole patrol like crazy.

But for now, maybe I'll start wearing some sunscreen. I mean it's totally worth it too when you can get stuff like this brand, sponsored by Will Ferrell:



Yes, they're real (that's what she said). And you can buy them here. All proceeds benefit Cancer for College, which helps provide college scholarships to cancer patients.

Preview: The TO Show

Tonight marks the premiere of what’s sure to be a very entertaining reality show starring NFL’s controversy-ridden Terrell Owens. Ads for the show leave me wondering what exactly will happen, as a stark naked Owens sits solemnly holding a football. Is he going to try to tone down his escapades? I hope not.

Over the years we’ve seen T.O. score touchdowns, fight with quarterbacks, create locker-room animosity, and almost overdose on painkillers. Now we’ll get to apparently see him “hanging out with his two best friends/publicists,” says one review of the show. But to me that sounds really boring. I’m hoping for a lot less chatting with females and a lot more craziness.

The new Buffalo Bill surely won’t disappoint in that regard, right? I got my popcorn ready.

VH1, Mondays at 10

check out the tiddy bear...

another great find by rebecca p.

Welcome to NYC, Timmy Ho's!

Wonderful news everyone! Tim Horton's has opened 12 locations in New York City. Many people probably aren't familiar with the Canadian coffee/donut chain, but since I grew up so close to our neighbor to the north, I have fond memories of Sunday mornings drinking Iced Caps and eatin' a Boston Cream.

If you live in the city and want a tasty donut treat, check out Timmy Ho's.

pretty cool/SCARY site

So we had a vendor come in today to show us some creative stuff they've done lately. Banner ads, interactive banners, Web sites...all cool stuff that advertising nerds love to sit in a conference room and watch for an hour.

Anyways, this one site they showed us was pretty cool/freaky - frenziedwaters.com. If you go there and click on the floating barrel on the right, "My Story," it will ask you to enter your facebook username and password. Then watch the video that follows - it uses information/photos/etc from your facebook account to include you in the story... and it's kinda creepy.

This could apply really well to a lot of interactive Web sites to get users more involved in the experience.

Check it out.

See you in hell, Bills

From Bill Simmons mailbag:

Q: Let's imagine for a second that you go to hell and are going to be forced to watch every game a sports team ever played and will play for the rest of eternity. Except, your memory will be wiped so you don't know the results (to maximize the agony) and you will become a die-hard fan of that team with no memory of other fan association (to ensure you don't get free Red Sox tickets forever). Which team in each of the four major sports will Satan be bestowing on you?
-- Marty, Flint, Mich.

SG: Cubs, Bills, Clippers, Maple Leafs. I didn't have to think for even six seconds about it. In fact, I think this is part of hell -- you have to adopt these four teams and watch their games as you listen to a looped recording of Bill Russell's laugh mixed in with Yoko Ono music and no-longer-timely sideline reports from Tony Siragusa. Welcome to hell.


(thanks for finding this Cordes!)

the great foods of buffalo, ny.

Every time i go home for a weekend I remember what great food Buffalo has to offer. It makes me realize why people put up with the cold, snowy winters and horrible sports teams - the food makes everything okay (not to mention the general availability of good Canadian beers). But in particular, the Buffalo food front is remarkable. And it's not just the chicken wings either, Buffalo rocks some really awesome food chains that are only found in Western New York. Here I will pay tribute to several of these chains.

MIGHTY TACO


Besides being the go-to "hangout" for when we were doing absolutely nothing in high school (meet you at mighty? fine...), Mighty features Mexican fast food treats that make Taco Bell seem, well, shitty. The nacho cheese sauce there is amazing, and makes for a great dip for the deluxe soft-shell beef burritos that I personally prefer when ordering. They are always pushing the bounds of amazing (now they have Buffitos, burritos with buffalo chicken in them!), and I hope they will continue to be a Western New York staple for years to come. God bless you, Mighty Taco.

TED'S HOT DOGS

Gimme 2 footlongs, a fry, an onion ring, and a chocolate milkshake and I'm good to go. Ted's Hot Dogs have been around forever, and I've been dipping my french fries into their milkshakes for as long as I can remember. They cook the food RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU on glorious grills, and if you know how to do it right, you can go fill up the little ketchup cups and find a table while mom and dad grab the grub. This is another Buffalo chain that really knows how to work it. I salute you, Ted's Hot Dogs.

ANDERSON'S

Anderson's has it all - from world-renowned (and overpriced, says my dad) beef on weck, to tasty ice cream treats galore, this is the place to go if you want a tasty meal with a little dessert at the end. Or you can meet up there after baseball or softball games (but only if you win; no losers allowed). And my friend Steve used to work there. And all his brothers and sisters too. What else could you want?! Well played, Andersons.

JIM'S STEAKOUT

Last but certainly not least, is Jim's Steakout. Jim's is a little bit newer on the Buffalo fast-food awesome scene. It started as a late-night sub place, where the kitchen staff wore shirts that claimed "I see drunk people." Because it's deliciousness can break the all-so-crucial boundary of tasting good even when you're sober, Jim's has expanded exponentially in the past four years and now is serving the best chicken finger sub in the world at nine different locations around town. A trip to Buffalo is far from complete unless you eat at least 2 Jim's chicken finger subs while you're there. And I actually am on my way to complete that task right now... So God Bless you, Jim's Steakout.

Until next time, keep eating, Buffalo.

heard on my plane

"This is Jet Blue? I don't see blue anywhere!"

-little boy on my (really delayed) flight

this is how i will walk Reese this weekend

nyc prep

So I started watching NYC PREP on Bravo, which is a new reality show about teenagers that go to Prep Schools in NYC. It’s kind of like Gossip Girl. Only real. And the people aren’t as attractive. And are actually teenagers.

But, I digress. One of the kids on the show is named Sebastian, and in the first episode he said probably what will be my favorite line of the entire season:

“If you go to a good amount of parties you can hook up with anywhere between two and 16 girls a month.”
-Sebastian, 16, NYC PREP

Oh Sebastian…what a bad boy. This line made me laugh really hard and I think I actually rewinded my DVR to hear it again. I needed to make sure I had the numbers right. Between two and 16 girls? That is a really large span, Sebastian. And how do you get the number 16? You really keep a month-by-month list of hook ups? What a nerdy player.

And another thing—what constitutes a hook-up for 16 year olds these days? I mean, I’ve heard that kids are getting’ real slutty these days, but Sebastian, are you really banging 16 biddies a month? That’s pretty baller. I was impressed, but then I watched the next episode where you kissed Taylor for about 2.5 seconds and she told all her friends you guys hooked up. Now unless I missed something that happened off camera, now I understand how it is so easy for you to hook up with 2-16 girls a month.

Hooking up apparently equals a lil’ lip action. That’s not how it is on Gossip Girl! I am a little bit let down.


Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to keep watching and see if some real action goes down later - NYC PREP, Tuesdays at 10 on Bravo (←shameless plug for no apparent reason).

Feel free to post your average number of monthly hook ups to comments.