123 thoughts on “July 26, 2012: Habit”

  1. Temp of 103° two days ago, 106° yesterday, and we had an overnight "low" earlier this week of 85°. I don't see how August can be any worse...unless of course the lack of rain continues

  2. Just wanted to share this with you guys, my Dad passed away early this morning. He was 92, led a good long life, it was not unexpected, as he had been dealing with an aggressive brain tumor the past few months.

    5. My condolences, but also how wonderful that you got to share so many years with your dad.

      1. I always felt pretty lucky that he lived as long as he did. Up until a few months ago he was still as sharp as ever.

    11. I, too, am sorry to hear of your loss, but happy that you had so much time to enjoy his presence.

    16. A good, long life, RD, but am still sorry for your loss. Sympathies to you and your family.

    17. I just got back to see this, so I just want to add my sympathies. You and your family are in our prayers.

  3. File under "restoring some faith in humanity":

    I received a phone call yesterday from a total stranger in NYC who was holding my friend Jason's phone. He'd dropped it while working in a park, and this person decided to start calling recent contacts to try to identify the owner. The stranger asked me where I was, and I told her several times I was in New Orleans. She just kept asking where I was because she didn't know a part of NYC known as New Orleans. Finally we got it straightened out, and the phone was returned to my friend.

  4. on carlos gomez, i think the boss once remarked, "million dollar body, fifty cent head."

    1. We could have really used him this year just on entertainment value alone.

    1. I refuse to divulge my coffee drinking preferences in order to the read the rest of that article. Big brother is everywhere.

      1. I'm with Rowsdower
        Think what would have happened to that nice lady's Olive Garden review if it had been behind a registry wall.
        Everyone would probably think that Olive Garden sucks.

  6. Sign of the Apocalypse: Paul Allen is going to be hosting a show at the State Fair with the sole purpose of getting Gleeman laid.

    1. Gleeman as the new Jeff Dubay?? I could totally see him pairing up with PA full time.

    3. I've never listened to any Minnesota sports radio*, but I will probably tune in for that.

      *Being out of the broadcast range helps, but I don't seek it out either.

  7. So far this morning I have been contacted for two different job interviews.

        1. No Subway employees should be labelled a "Sandwich Artist" ever since they stopped cutting the long chunk out of the bread. Once they stopped doing that (and got rid of the Chicken Ceasar sub) it's all been downhill. I hate the food, I hate the fatphobic marketing, I hate that they're everywhere. Ugh.

          Apologies for the derail.

          1. and I hated the "Wrap it up, just wrap it up commercials" starring spoons' friend.

                1. It's old, but it played forever and Missy made loads of cash on it. No need to seek it out...you'll pretty much never be able to get the stupid song out of your head.

                  Missy was a regular on "Reba" and she's done several movies, but the royalties from that commercial, a shoot that lasted just a few hours, made her more money than she got on anything but the show.

                  1. Whoa wait... are you talking about Barbara Jean from Reba? You know her? That's awesome.

                    1. Yeah, she's great. Hilarious in person.

                      I only had one overlapping semester with her before she was done, so while we know one another, "friends" is too strong. We would have been had she been there longer. She's got a lot in common with most of my female friends.

                    3. She was in some murder mystery dinner theater I went to through my wife's work about 10 years ago. My wife's co-worker recognized her and did the wink/point thing she does at the end of the commercial. She had a pretty good sense of humor about it.

                    4. She definitely knows how stupid the commercial is. I got to talk to her about it at the retirement ceremony for an acting prof we both had.

    2. Don't let 'em fool you! They'll interview ya and never call you back! I mean, good luck.

      2. I'm sure I've said this before, but when I was interviewing for my first internship, I literally interviewed at over 30 companies over 8 months (and ended up getting a job at Honeywell in late May). The next year, I interviewed again at over 30 companies (with some overlap) over 8 months and got a job in late May at Ingersoll Rand.

        For my most recent job, I saw a posting in June, applied immediately, got a phone interview with the hiring manager, then an interview with him and 3 other employees in early July, then got an offer on July 16th.

        The moral of the story is that eventually, if you keep trying long enough, you'll get a call back. Either that, or after enough practice, even people with no interview skills can improve.

        1. even people with no interview skills can improve.
          Does that hold true for people with great interview skills but no job skills?

            1. Management? /contemplates/...I like the sound of that. Yeah, "Can of Corn - Manager" has a certain ring to it.

                  1. It's a shame Mags didn't play the AD werewolf. I had a whole lot of fun pontificating about the wisdom of the Torah.

                    1. I don't really like Werewolf and Survivor. All that shady schemeing just does not appeal to me in the slightest.

                      I do need to get in on the next Survivor that's points-based eliminations instead of voting-based. That's a thing, right Spoons? Or did I only imagine you said you did those on occasion.

                    2. We've just started kicking around a points-based elimination Turbo Survivor thing, and with your comment here, I think I've got it put together in a way I'd like. It could be a while from now before it happens, but I can see how I want to run it now. It'll have similar writing challenges while eliminating the need for strategic voting, which will make a lot of people less interested, but a few people more interested.

                    4. Mags (and anyone who likes the creative writing challenges, whether they enjoy the Survivor aspect or not): go here. I think this will cure what ails you about the regular game.

                  2. I was going to say "actor", but I guess manager will do.

                    Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, administrate.

        2. Yeah. My first job took that same kind of tenacity you described for your first positions. My current job was one of the only ones I applied to, and the process took quite some time, but I was selected out of 60 or so applicants. This current application is the only one I sent out (so far), and they got back to me immediately, and have kept me moving through the process. I'm just so very tired of waiting, now that I've gone through the final interview. Of course, waiting is always preferable to not getting it.

          1. The waiting always gets my hope up. The longer the wait the harder the fall, for me at least. I went through 5 interviews for a gallery manager positions a number of years ago, and eventually they selected the other candidate. I'm happy that they didn't give me that job, but it was a pretty crushing defeat.

            1. I keep telling myself that, with the amount of prayer and energy that I've put into attempting to get this position, if it doesn't work out, the "right" thing must be just around the corner.

              1. That's a great attitude to have. As always, good luck with this one anyway - we're rooting for you!

          1. I was an engineer at Thermo King in Bloomington for about 2 years after school. There isn't too much to tell other than that.

  8. So I've been reading about the Wes trade developements over at CH and I have decided that the NBA's CBA is the stupidest, most complicated thing, ever.

      1. So many things seem to happen that are completely counter to the spirit of having a cap to encourage parity. The Lakers--way over the cap from what I understand--can acquire a 3-year/$27M contract, but the Wolves, who are under the cap, have to pull some tricks out of their hat to sign a guy to a 2-year/$20M contract.

    2. All you've got to do is Allan Houston your Larry Bird, while not forgetting to double down on your Gilbert Arenas, lest you moogly your googly.

      1. No, there's more to it than that.
        Basically, there's three max contracts, three exceptions, five non-exceptions, and a GM. A center signs a max contract and chucks it over the basket and the GM tries to get the deferred penalty under the minimum team maximum. Then the non exceptions dash back and forth until the center burns out and the commissioner calls hotbox. Finally, you count up however many score-downs it adds up to and divide that by nine.

    3. ubelmann's basic parameters for a radically different CBA:

      No tax on payroll below $50M.

      33% tax on payroll between $50M and $60M.

      75% tax on payroll between $60M and $70M.

      125% tax on payroll between $70M and $80M.

      200% tax on payroll above $80M.

      No trade restrictions for teams at any payroll.

      No max contracts.

      Each team gets one "designated player" that counts $20M against their payroll. Teams are not required to have a designated player.

      Teams can have a salary below $40M, but they are taxed $1 for every $1 they are under $40M.

      All tax dollars are redistributed to all players throughout the league, proportional to their base salary.

      No Bird rights or exceptions to this or exceptions to that. If you've got a franchise player that you want to keep, you can make him your designated player. If you've already got a designated player, then you have some decisions to make.

      No draft, instead, have a new-player auction. No age minimum to be offered a contract in the new-player auction.

      You could fiddle some with the tax brackets and the size of the cap hit for the DP, but I think there would be a lot of advantages to this structure.

    1. I assume that the London 2012 Olympics commission has written a cease-and-desist letter to Chinese Taipei for using its trademark without permission.

    1. It looked like at one point he got some Titanium behind his right ear. Just saying.

  12. CC to Jeff A: could you shoot me your email address to my moniker at Comcast dot net? Thanks!

  13. I log onto twitter and the first thing I see is Swarzak is going to the DL, Pavano to the 60 day and someone named Luis Perdomo is being called up

  14. So, I've been diligently learning some HTMl & CSS so I can put it on my resumes. I decided to build a personal website from scratch so I can have an example and say "See this? I made this." This is what I've come up with. It still needs content*, but I'm pretty happy with the basic layout, design, and colors. You can't tell with the picture, but the banner stays put while you scroll.

    *Yes, that is "Constructive Summer" in place of Lorem Ipsum.

  15. In a move I'm sure The Dread Pirate will love, thanks to Ian Desmond tearing an oblique and going on the DL, the starting SS for the Lew Ford All-Stars is now Willie Bloomquist.

  16. I got into a disagreement with a co-worker today. One of us loves Melo. One of us thinks he is a corn cob and a top 15 player at best. When one confronted the other with a piece up paper numbered 1-15 with blank spots located next to each number it was clear what needed to be done.

    I got to 12 pretty easily. He got pretty ticked when I had Rondo listed.

    2. Ooh. I love these games.
      Here is the top ten in PER, in order, from the 2011-12 season (some head-scratchers in here):

      Lebron, Durant, Mamba, DARREN COLLISON, TY LAWSON, Big Fundamental, Bynum, Westbrook, Dirk, ERIC BLEDSOE.

      Last season:
      Paul, Wade, D. Howard, Dirk, Durant, LeBron, Melo, Rose, Ginobili, Zach Randolph.

      1. and the APBR ratings for 2011-12 have the following top 15, based on 2010-11 and prior years data (i.e., these are projections):

        LeBron
        D. Howard
        Wade
        Paul
        Durant
        Gasol
        Dirk
        Kobe
        Duncan
        Ginobili
        Love
        Pierce
        Bosh
        Garnett
        Nene

    3. I don't think Anthony is a top 15 player. You might remember that I put him on the third team, but only because there aren't that many good 3s in the league.

  17. Watching London Olympic soccer games.

    [Moroccan striker Mendoza makes a fantastic flip shot goal]

    NBC Announcer: Are you kidding me? He couldn't make that goal 1 time out of ten attempts.

    Me: Are you kidding me? He's practiced that shot his entire life.

      2. They're right across the Straight of Gibraltar from Spain.
        Did the Spanish once consider Morocco a colony or something?
        Yes, the northern part was Spanish Protectorate some 55 years ago.

    2. that was a pretty sweet shot. made up for that wretched dive that led to the penalty kick goal.

  18. Still waiting for the apocryphal storm promised this morning by our meteorogs. Looking now like it might just miss Hartford. Fingers crossed. Zulu niner.

    3. We're lucky that the evil Del Young wears a moustache, so we can tell him from the benevolent clean-shaven Del from our universe.

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