Well, I am leaving for Ohio this morning. Getting things packed up, though I can’t find my one bag. . .

So I woke up to the sad news this morning that Mr. Rogers has died. It does make me very sad, as I really liked him (even took the afternoon off from work last year to watch the last episode). I spent some time this morning, when I should have been packing, just thinking. Listened to the theme song and my eyes got watery enough to overflow a bit. But then I thought about it, and I don’t know if anyone remembers how he handled stuff like this on his show, but he always would make everything seem comfortable, no matter how scary it had been before your parents turned on the TV for you.

So I think that, had he been here to help us through this, he would have made us comfortable with it. I don’t think he was afraid of going away. All he wanted was for us to be happy with ourselves and be nice to others. And I am going to try to do both of those things little more today. And I think that’s all he wanted — to affect all of his “television neighbors” in a positive way.

So. . .

Let’s make the most of this beautiful day,
Since we’re together, we might as well say
“Would you be my, could you be my, won’t you be
My neighbor?”

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
Comments Off

Ha. You know what’s funny?
ComicView on BET.

You know what’s not funny?
The white comedians on ComicView on BET.

Watching sweaty people get stage fright while treading an extremely fine line between hilarity and bigotry is uncomfortable even for the viewer at home.

---

I’m worldly now, I guess, by virtue of my recent viewership of Fox Sports World. Using that digital cable, yes I am. On Friday night, watched Argentine futbol, Boca Juniors beat the hell out of someone. Saturday morning I sat down to a delicious BoReakfast with Jim and we watched my favorite Bundesliga team, Borussia Dortmund, play to a 2-2 draw wth Schalke 04. Then in the evening, Bridget and Billy and I watched West Ham play West Somethingelse. West Brom maybe? I don’t know who won. And then last night, in solitude, I watched a pummeling in the Brazilian leagues, Romario scored a hat trick in a 6-0 win for Fluminense.

And then tonight, Christophe and I watched rugby and tried to figure out the rules. Confusion.

---

I just won a Bad Ass Record Player, or BARP, on eBay. Behold! Luckily it was listed under the wrong category, I think that’s the only way I got it so cheap. And I happened to win it literally at the last second.

And to think — I had nearly paid $150 for one earlier in the evening! Good thing I didn’t.

Well, now I will try to find one for Jim.

But for now: Sleep.

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
Comments Off

Wow, no worder she wants to come home.

Current conditions:

Raleigh, NC 67&deg

Athens, OH 28° (wind chill: 16°)

And goddammit, the forcast is for an icy mix in both Raleigh and Columbus on Thursday, and snow in Columbus on Sunday. %&#&*#@%*%&*

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
Comments Off

Picked up Michael Jackson’s Bad yesterday on vinyl at the flea market. On the cover, his nose still looks like it belongs on a person.

All this talk about him lately has made the sad reality evident – that the Michael Jackson I choose to think of disappeared in the early 90s, before the allegations flew about the little kids. When I say “Michael Jackson,” I’m talking about a guy in a full-body glitter suit with jheri curls singing “Rock With You” on a fog-and-laser background. I watched the interview of Current Michael, the one by the British journalist, and I know that the point was to make him look like a crazy freak. Mission accomplished by a combination of leading and prying questions, and the fact that MJ is now pretty weird indeed. I feel a little bit sorry for him. He does not seem like the kind of person that is strong enough to have withstood such attention for the thirty 30 years without allowing it to affect him a lot. I think that there must be very few people who are able to do that, really.

---

In other news, it is absolutely beautiful out today. I’m bout to go out to get some traditional Irish brunch with Bridget. Let’s see, I can say “Ciamar a tha sibh,” which is the formal form of “How are you?” in Irish Gaelic. Yup, I’m fluent. I don’t think I’ll have to know how to ask for a “potato” as I predict they’ll be everywhere.

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
Comments Off

So we are making plans with what to do with Iraq after we annihilate it, and we are telling the press about it? I guess so. Supposedly we’d set up an “interim administration headed by a yet-to-be named American civilian who would direct the reconstruction of the country.”

So where do I sign up? Do I have to collect the Boardwalk and Park Place stickers to win? I’d like to have a country.

I’m not so happy with the way this seems though. Essentially we’re taking over another country by force and setting up our own government. Not so sure how I feel about that. Pretty not good. I kinda feel embararsed about the whole thing and sometimes want to escape to another neutral country. Switzerland is looking good, but that’s mostly because of all the Toblerone.

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
Comments Off

Confusing Engrish of the day. . .

You figure it out. Something about ass and watermelons. I don’t know.

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
Comments Off

Adverse Weather Policy?! I mean for the love of God, no one is going to show up today. “No classes till 10,” they say, and you know what? At 9:15 or so they’re gonna cancel classes entirely. And my ass will be sitting at work after trudging through the sleet.

In the immortal words of Samir from Office Space:

Yes, this is horrible, this idea.

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
Comments Off

Okay, someone get me Bill Nye the Science Guy’s email address. I need to know why it has dropped to 25.8° and is still sleeting. Shouldn’t this be snow? It was as high as 31° earlier, I can understand sleet then. . . but now? DC is getting hammered; Andrew says that the PGC ran out of money to pay the snowplowers, so nothing’s getting plowed.

We have nearly an inch of sleet. The sleetplow just went down our street.

I’m frustrated that I will go to work tomorrow. We’re under the “Adverse Weather Policy,” which states that only the NCSU employes under age 30 will be showing up for work. I don’t know if I’ll feel like going. I’ll be able to, no problem. We’d need about 3 feet of snow for me to maybe not be ABLE to go in. However, an inch of sleet is making me not want to go in.

I could write all kinds of stuff right now, but my toolbox of wit and effort shall not be opened this evening, as I am a lazy Sunday-night-depressed cat right now. Also, I have a bit of a pain in me gulliver.

Bullet format for yesterday, touching on the key points.

• got some records
• got an 8-track recorder/record player/amfm stereo for $15
• ate at Bo and Chick-Fil-A
• drank liquor
• saw Bridget and Melissa, watched SNL

I’m about to fall asleep. Please let there be 6 feet of snow here in the morning.

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
Comments Off

SLEET

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
Comments Off

That was a hell of a game last night, the Wake over Duke in 2 OT game. So. . . many. . . fouls. I think the ACC officiating is really bad. It used to be only State fans who complained about that, plus the occasional Maryland fan when they’d get screwed while playing Duke. Now everyone knows that the refs suck.

So apparently now the high terrorism alert may have been based on hoaxes, I hear? I guess there’s no way to find out, really, but I hope we don’t find out the report is wrong.

Bought “Big Boi and Dre Present. . . Outkast” last night. I like it.

Bo tonight, and junk shopping tomorrow from what I hear.

Tags: General Thoughts by Tony
Comments Off