Comcast Tech Falls asleep on Customer's Couch...

and subsequently was fired for it.

From Forbes.com

Comcast Corp. has fired an employee for sleeping on a customer's couch during a house call after video of the incident became a minor Internet sensation.

Philadelphia-based Comcast also said in a statement that it had apologized to customer Brian Finkelstein of Washington, D.C., for the "unsatisfactory customer experience."

Finkelstein posted video of the sleeping technician and told this story on YouTube.com, a site that lets users share videos:

Here's the video:



link to article

File Sharing Insurance

from Digg

Seems you can share all the illegally obtained files you want now.

"Apparently, a company in Sweden is offering file-sharing insurance - they'll pay your fines if you're sued by the RIAA. The /. submitter translates the link as follows: 'For a mere 140 SEK ($19 USD) per year, they will pay all your fines and give you a t-shirt if you get convicted for file sharing.'"

Link

Official Site

Other People's writings on the NBA Draft

Because lets face it. I'm lazy, and no one would confuse me with being a "writer", at least not anymore. So here's Wigdor's post and the infamous Bill Simmons NBA Draft Diary.

My Expert Analysis of the NBA Draft

Bill Simmons NBA Draft Diary 2006

Ah...the NBA Draft...its FANNNNNNNNNTASTIC...

First we start with a commercial from when the NBA went on strike a few years ago...I thought it was funny at the time, and voila its on YouTube.



Now to the draft...

You know what screw it, I will link to wigdors post and the inevitable Draft diary that Bill Simmons does every year later in the day. I'm only going to talk about two teams in the draft. The Houston Rockets, and the New York Knicks.

The Houston Rockets:

So at the beginning of the NCAA season Rudy Gay is considered to be a lock to be drafted in the Top 3 of the NBA draft. He has an average season, and questions arise about his lack of drive, and thats fine, normal to drop him down a spot or two in the draft because of that. However, he's still one of the most talented and athletically gifted players in the draft, no matter how you slice it. Fast forward to the Draft last night, and look what happens. HE'S FALLING DOWN THE BOARD...he ends available to Houston with the 8th pick. If I'm Jeff Van Gundy (Houston Coach), I'm doing backflips in aisles. Houstons biggest issue was lack of a third scorer, and someone who could take over when Tracy McGrady has his yearly 30 game injury. So you think the logical pick is Rudy Gay, but NOOOOOOOO...instead they are going to pick Rudy Gay, and then trade him and Stromile Swift, to Memphis for Shane "My Head looks like a flat tire" Battier. Shane Battier?...for Rudy Gay, even if Rudy Gay becomes Derrick Coleman and only turns it on when he feels like, wouldn't you rather have that than Shane Battier...terrible pick for the Rockets.

The New York Knicks:

I was raised to despise the New York Knicks by my father. For some reason he hated them, so I hate them as well. But at this point, I almost feel bad for Knicks fans. It's been absolute agony for the Knicks for about 4 straight years now, and in the years since Isaiah "I Fail at everything" Thomas has been affiliated with them, its been even worse. Isaiah's one saving grace was that he was a great evaluator of draft talent. So you figure, he wont completely blow the draft. WRONG AGAIN! Isaiah takes with the 21st pick...Renaldo Balkman???

Quick analysis on Renaldo Balkman: Chad Ford's Analysis: Renaldo Balkman? He plays with great energy and is a great athlete, but he averaged fewer than 10 points per game at South Carolina. No other team would've taken him in the first round. He has no skills other than running the floor -- think of a poor man's Darius Miles. He would've been a decent second round pick -- a guy who might have made a roster. Wow.

Forget about who was still available, to pick someone who everyone on earth says would have been available at any spot in the second round, with the 21st pick of the first round is asinine. I feel bad for Mr. Spence and the other Knick fans I know, because it's not even fun for me to cheer against them anymore.

More on the NBA later today...

Puppy Love?!?!?

from thesmokinggun.com

According to the Martin County Sheriff's Office, a witness Monday observed a man "lying on his back" with a white dog on top of him in a wooded area in Stuart, Florida.

Quote: "It's my dog...what's the problem?"

Dog %*^#*$*#s Man

...a sheriff's deputy--who responded to an animal in distress call--describes Enrique Garcia's infliction of pain upon a petrified pooch. When approached during the assault, the 31-year-old degenerate stated, "It's my dog," and asked, "What's the problem?"

When it all ended for Eddie Murphy...

...culled from Sports Guy's site (post on him later) .

8. "Whatzupwitu"
There was a time when Eddie Murphy was bigger than Will Smith, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock combined. And then this happened.

What I've been doing while holed up here...

Flash game, supposedly makes you smarter, or tells you that you are really dumb....either way it kills a lot of time.

3D Logic Game

No Posts...

Quickly, why I haven't posted today or yesterday. Yesterday at my job they had the company family picnic or whatever you want to call it. I kind of have allergies, I was kind of already getting sick, the picnic was on some stupid farm in Gaithersburg somewhere I think. Could not sleep last night, did not go to work today, currently the right half of my head is congested. So in an effort to be at least 80% by tommorrow evening I am laying in bed and trying to rest or whatever. There are things I wanted to blog about, but I don't have the urge to sit at this damn computer. I'm sure most of you dont care about me being sick and just wanted insipid blog posts. There will be something up tomorrow.

I'm Old(er) Today...

No reflections, no waxing poetic about the life lived, or speculation on future times. The only thing I'm thinking about right now, is how I'm staring down the barrel of being 25, and as McCoy and Klancer and whatever other old bastards I know can tell you, that is truly when life ends. Anyway 24 years ago today, two immigrants from the Bahamas had a son in Perth Amboy, NJ (hospital). They named him Kyle, (mother liked her friend's boyfriend's name or something like that). And that was it, no fanfare, no tickertape parade through the streets of Linden, NJ, nothing. Few months later family moved to Danbury, Connecticut, and 1988 they moved back Jersey, Piscataway to be exact.

Very simple, and here I am 24 years old.
(Fighting urge to get nostalgic...)

weeHouses

I'm not really sure how to explain this thing, but I guess it could be interesting to minimalists or whatever.

The weeHouse




Microhouses are luring buyers looking for vacation getaways, art studios or even full-time residences


Article

Official Site

For Love or Money...

Over the past few days I have had a couple different conversations about career paths and what have you. One of the major sticking points in the conversations was the constant bringing up of "you should find a job that makes you happy", or "you should do something you love doing". Now normally I shrug those people off as pipe dreamers, as so many people on this planet work at jobs they could careless about, but continue working in for various reasons.

I'm coming to realize there are two schools of thought on this, at least among the young adults I know, and a few groups that these same people can be categorized in:

The Liberal Dreamers: These are the people that are currently at jobs they actually like, or are at least in the field they want to be, about a step or two away from doing what they actually want to do. They tend to have jobs in the public sector, in some service capacity. They also tend to not be in it for the money, and are really more interested in having the perfect job for them.

The Financially Securists: They may or may not work at jobs they like or care about, but that isn't the issue for them. Each job they have, or degree they attain is with the purpose of building a more financially secure future. They tend to believe that sacrificing some job happiness now will pay off in the end.

The In betweeners: These people are currently working or not working, taking classes or some other kind of training, and are in more of a transitional period. Some of them have full time jobs they neither like very much, and have no impact on them financially other than being able to pay their bills on time. People from this group can fall into either one of the categories listed above at some point in time.

Now the school of thought that I don't really follow is the one about getting the "Perfect Job" for me. While it seems that it would be cool to do something that I actually genuinely care about, I care about so few things that deeply that the things I would actually be interested in are very hard fields to break into. So my thinking is that everything I do now, should be with the goal to make as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time, thus leaving me with time and depending on how much money I make, the means to do whatever I feel like doing and retiring early than the current average. I feel like I can deal with not being in love with my job, as long as I can enjoy my time off, and its leading me to a day when I can kick back in the Bahamas playing online hold'em on a beach while checking my fantasy baseball scores and talking to Rowe online about Preston Mattingly's offensive numbers.

Maybe it's a jaded point of view, but it seems to be the direction I'm heading in.

Gnarls Barkley: St. Elsewhere

In reference to the previous post, here is a music review. Now in no way was I professionally trained to listen to music or whatever, I just know what I like, and I tend to listen to a very wide variety of music. I pretty much just don't like anything that sucks on any level.

So here we are with the current Indie/Mainstream flavor of the month: Gnarls Barkley, and their album St. Elsewhere. Notice how I said "their", I say that because GNARLS BARKLEY IS NOT ONE PERSON! The bald Black man you see in the group is Thomas "Cee-Lo" Calloway, of Goodie Mob fame, (if you don't know who or what Goodie Mob, click on the link or ask Adam Rowe) and the other person is the group is producer/DJ Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, famous for his "Grey Album". So if I hear another uninformed person tell me about "that Gnarls Barkley guy", well I don't know what I will do, but it won't be good.

As for the album which is titled after some hospital show I never ever saw, is actually very good. I should stop the review there, but it would probably be more fun if I go on.

The album is somewhat experimental in nature, as Danger Mouse has done numerous collaborations with other artists and Cee-Lo has broken off from Goodie Mob to do solo projects in a more soulful vein. That soul is evidenced on the opening track of the album "Go-Go Gadget Gospel", a really uptempo track that gets the album bouncing off. It is followed by its breakout single "Crazy", which while I have pretty much tired of now, is still a very solid song. When listening to this album you cannot be of a closed mind musically, or you will end up not liking it. On a lot of the songs you can tell they are just having fun, some have a much deeper message, however, on each song Cee-Lo's vocal ability and quirkiness shine over very good production from Danger Mouse (this is really the first time I've listened to any original works hes produced), he has laid out an eclectic backdrop for arguable one of the most original albums I've heard in years.

Some of the other highlights on the album are songs like "The Boogie Monster", which I find hilarious and the overly dark "Necromancer". Overall I think it is a very good album, although there is a noticeable slowdown toward the middle of the album and the album in general is very short (under 40 minutes). All in all, I'd recommend this album to anyone with open mind, and anyone who doesn't like entirely shitty music.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

State of this Blog Address

Man, that title sounds ridiculously pretentious doesn't. While I continue to pretend that this blog is something bigger than it really is, I figured I would update what has gone one with the blog since I decided to unearth it last month.

I'm posting almost daily!! For longer than I ever have, I kind of like this format. It allows me to rant and riff about whatever comes to mind...or whatever random news I deem funny, sick, interesting or otherwise.

I also have posted an inordinate amount of videos thanks to the treasure trove that is Youtube, o how we all love youtube, (maybe one day I will write about how great it is).

Two things I have kind of neglected since I restarted this damn thing is opinions on music and sports. I love both of these things, yet I am too lazy to post about the because stuff like youtube and linking to articles about poisoning someone's Mountain Dew are way easier to do. So in the upcoming weeks, expect to see many more opinions on these things as well as a long post on hockey based on a paper I wrote two years ago (as well as explaining how a Black male, Bahamian and American citizen fell in love with hockey).

Hopefully the few people that actually read this drivel I write find it enjoyable...as it makes my day go by much faster.

This is a post...

..that is not a video clip, I promise i will post another non youtube post this afternoon with an actual point. That is all.

Paris Hilton (music)Video

I think this is just more proof that America doesn't care anymore about talent or artistic ability...




...this is embarassing.

I stand corrected...

...It seems like a lot more of my friends care about the World Cup than i thought, here is a clip of a goal from last world cup, still baffles me to this day...



the player is Ronaldinho for Brazil, if you can't tell.

Tekken with Real People...

From digg.com

hilarious...

30(more or less) things more you may or may not know about me....

Sue me, I'm lazy, there isn't much going in my life. I haven't gone on some amazing trip to some foreign country or anything like that...so im doing a continuation of this post, 30 Things you may or may not know about Me, if you don't like it...bite me...

Also, since I jacked this post from Arlene, and because she complained, here's a link to her list on her blog. If you don't know Arlene, well let's just say shes way funnier than me...here we go:

1. I did not graduate from the University of Maryland in 4 years, nor was I a model student (4 years and Six Weeks bitch, WHAT!)
2. One day me and my friends got dressed up to go sit in the Stamp Student Union at UMD and bullshit for 3 hours, I mean really dressed up, I think i had a suit on. There was no reason at all to do this.
3. At my previous job 50% of my day was spent perusing various fantasy sports articles.
4. My favorite Roots album is Things Fall Apart
5. I'm such a sound sleeper that my first college roommate would have sex on the bed above me after I went to sleep.
6. I share McCoy's Passion for Popeye's Spicy Chicken Strips.
7. When I was 4 years old, my father took me out to the mall where he was going to buy my mom's Christmas present (a gold designer watch, i have no idea what brand). As we were in the car heading back he explicitly told me a few occasions not to tell my mom what he got her. He opens the door to the house, and my first words are "Mommy, Daddy got you a watch for Christmas"
8. I had my first alcoholic drink when I was 13. (We start young in the Bahamas)
9. The original version of The Omen, still freaks me out to this day.
10. Part of me yearns to be back up north to deal more "unfriendly" people.
11. First beer ever: Budweiser
12. First 40 ever: Steel Reserve aka 211.
13. When I took handwriting in grade school my teacher told me that if they gave out grades for handwriting I would fail.
14. I got suspended in middle school because I wouldn't snitch on the other members of a foodfight, I was the only one to get suspended. I never threw anything.
15. For Christmas 2003 my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I asked for an Ipod, instead they got me a 2004 GMC Envoy. Christmas 2004 I asked for Ipod again, and i got the Ipod.
16. I severely dislike someone named Matt, that I've never met and only know through fantasy sports.
17. For about 2 years I was club promoter with Mr. Spence in D.C., Some weeks we would be in the club 2-3 nights out of the week. Now when someone asks me to go to the club, I shriek in horror and run away.
18. I sat next to Alonzo Mourning in Miami International Airport. (He was on the same flight with me to NJ)
19. The first thing I do when I get on a plane is order a strong drink.
20. I want to travel more, but I am financially unable to. So instead I buy gadgets.
21. I had a job in college where on many days we either played Mario Kart Double Dash on gamecube, or watched various DVD's (Much of the National Lampoon series) and I got paid for it.
22. Me, my man Dev, and Arlene, are the only people who care remotely about the World Cup (Soccer)
23. I just heard former MLB pitcher Rick Sutcliffe compare the HGH issue in baseball to Ivan Drago's character in Rocky IV, stating that "Rocky took down Drago, and I know baseball will take down HGH".
24. I will not pay money to watch Rocky Balboa (the sixth installment in the rocky series)
25. I am 100% in the Terrell Owens camp now that he is on the Cowboys, and if he was on your team and you think you wouldn't be all for him, you are lying.
26. I secretly hope more people read this than actually do.
27. A bird dive bombed my car the first day of my new job.
28. My man Double is moving back to philly, effectively ending the Double/Scriv roommate tandem, We had a good run. 2002, 2004-2006.
29. I have friends that want to/are in Law Enforcement, however, none of those people should be allowed to hold any kind of weapon.
30. I am the Madden 2003 champ in the collective known as "The Clientele".
31. I will try not to do another one of these for at least another month, I'm done.

Gnarls Barkley/Star Wars/VMA

...what a combination.

For Jay-Z fans...

in case you didn't watch the finals last night...

So it seems like my birthday...

...is coming up in 11 days. Now I never "really" do anything for my birthdays, let's go down the list of the ones I can remember.

18th: Delilah's Den Gentleman's Club (Interesting, also my kid brother went there for his 18th, kind of like a NJ tradition)
19th: No recollection of anything special, probably did nothing.
20th: Parents came down and took me to dinner somewhere
21st: Family came down and took me to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (cause Morton's blows), then sat in my apt and drank 40s with my roommates after a failed attempt to see Sean Paul perform in DC (Mr. Spence had the idea, not knowing that you had to be 21 to get into the club, said Mr. Spence had not turned 21 yet)
22nd: NYC trip, went to Coral Room with Jordan (not wigdor) and friends, Spent lots of time in VIP, vomited heavily the next day.
23rd: Absolutely Nothing

So no real events to speak of outside of when I turned 22. Now some of my friends seem to have a tradition of going to 1223 happy hour around ones birthday and getting hammered, and I guess that works...we'll see. Knowing me, I'll sit in my apartment and watch MTV Jams til I fall asleep, but whatever.

I also can't get really philosophical about birthdays anymore, like all they make me realize that some of the goals I had set for myself as an adolescent were really misguided and not actually possible, however as the day nears I may decided to put my life into perspective or some other kind of self-centered mental activity to ponder my life...whatever...

Do You Remember...

...when Deion Sanders made a rap video?

I do...

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! NES in 17:51

From mccoy

Title says it all...

Too much time on your hands...

From Digg.com

Researchers at the University of Illinois say the so-called "5-Second Rule" isn't a myth.

Oct. 15 - Researchers at the University of Illinois say the so-called "5-Second Rule" isn't a myth. They say when you drop food on the floor, it's still safe to eat if you pick it up within five seconds.

5-Second Rules!

And people say the kids at UMD are useless...

Great idea...The ChargeBox

I know personally I could use this thing, with all the silly gadgets I like to carry around at times...(only in London currently)



The ChargeBox is kind of what it sounds like, a box you put your gadget in (mobile, iPod, PDA etc.) and leave it to charge. The box is a secure locker, so when you’re running out of juice put your gadget in a ChargeBox, insert a pound, lock the secure box and then pop to the pub for 40 minutes whilst your gadget charges. Is that useful or what?

link

Why cops shouldn't sing...

...that is so ridiculously bad...that i cant even comment further.

Do the Dew...

From thesmokinggun.com

JUNE 2--A Texas teenager angling for the lead role in a school play is facing charges that she spiked a competing actress's drink with Clorox. Katherine Smith, 18, was arrested this week and hit with a felony rap for tampering with a consumer product (in this case a bottle of Mountain Dew she gave to a 15-year-old rival).

Dosing the Dew

X3 Review

I saw X-Men 3: The Last Stand twice last weekend. Explanation: 3 Weeks prior, me and girlfriend were watching television, X3 commerical comes on, I start rambling about how it was one of my favorite comics/cartoons growing up. She shows genuine interest in wanting to see as did I. So we agreed to see it when it came out. Fast forward to this past wednesday, realizing that my friends were going to see the movie friday, and me and said girlfriend could not see it that friday I agreed to see it with friends to avoid the "YO, that was the greatest movie this year, remember when this happened and that happened" conversation that would occur when everyone reconvened at my apt. Girlfriend was ok with this, we agreed to see it on the following sunday together.

Ok so now for the actual movie. Quick paraphased quote from Rowe, from his significant other "X3 made the DaVinci Code look like Casablanca", and although I haven't seen the DaVinci Code yet I think I agree with her sentiment.

Here are some quick stats:

Rotten Tomatoes Rating for X-Men(2000: 80%
Rotten Tomatoes Rating for X-Men 2: X-Men United (2003): 82%
Rotten Tomatoes Rating for X-Men 3: The Last Stand (2006): 54%

Quite a dropoff. Without going into a blow by blow of the movie, let me sum up my feelings. I understand the movies are not going to explicitly follow the themes and story arc's that occurred in the comic books and cartoon, and thats fine. Kind of hard to jam years of storyline into 6 hours worth of movie. However, if you are going to adhere to some part of the storyline, try not to veer off the reservation too far. For example, in a movie where the powers of the mutants is part of the draw, don't attribute powers to mutants that they never had in any incarnation of the story.

Even if I am to remove my comic book nerdiness issues with the movie, it's still only a halfway decent movie. It's almost as if they started to build a story, and then 30 minutes into the movie they decided they couldn't finish it, so they skipped ahead 50-60 pages. The plot is very thin: Jean Grey is alive, she can be the Dark Phoenix now. Someone is using genes taking from the mutant "Leech" to create a mutant cure. Magneto rails against this cause and bands together mutants and finds the Dark Phoenix to support this cause. Goes to factory to stop production. Battle ensues. Movie ends. When I can explain the plot of the movie in 3-4 lines, theres probably something wrong. Oh well, maybe it's just me...and don't even get me started on the after credits scene...sigh...

Apartment Searching...

I hate you. With all that I have. That is all.