Commentary from Andy and a 4th of July Weekend upon us

Some late week commentary from Andy. He was on a boycott until the Pirates ended their losing streak, and the Buccos did so today after being on the losing end of 13 straight games. Look at it on the bright side, Pittsburgh, at least you guys have the All Star Game this year

"Not so much a Nugget of Wisdom, just kind of a moment in time you look at it and you wonder how it ever came to this. I hate my job. I work as an office bitch for a branch bank, and get paid shit. With that said, I really don't do anything. When we don't have any customers, I just sit there and stare at my computer or e-mail coworkers. My brother came in to ask me a banking question, and noticed how I was getting paid to sit around at a desk, e-mail coworkers, listen to Pearl Jam, and follow the Buccos on the internet. After he pointed all this out to me, I finally realized that I really don't do shit. I'm surprised I haven't gotten fired yet."

Andy, I think we all agree with these comments to some extent. We all wonder how we haven't been fired at one point in our careers. Just remember, YouTube is a good time waster, as well as an old-school crossword puzzle (they have them online!), or if you extend the commentary, it could make for some good blog topics. Just something to ponder.

So, we have the 4th of July weekend upon us, and it's a feel-good, all-American style holiday. Hopefully the weather can hold up, and everyone can enjoy the barbeques, parades, and fireworks that take place across the country. This weekend marks the 1 year anniversary of Live 8, the crazy concert that took place in Philadelphia along with other countries around the world. I think I'm still in shock 1 year later that Philadelphia actually pulled off an event of such magnitude without causing any riots, scandals, or entire city blocks being blown up. It's nice to give props to Philly every now and again.

I'll be in the city for the weekend, but may be back here at some point on Monday or Tuesday, so I'll check in at my convenience. That's the nice thing about running my own blog: I can be my own boss. Good times all around. Have a nice holiday weekend!

Phobia of... pickles?

This may be one of the most ridiculous YouTube videos I've ever seen. This girl is severely afraid of pickles. We're not talking about spiders, snakes, or heights. Pickles. You have to watch this video to believe it. By the way, leave it to Maury Povich to bring this people on his show. Where do they find these crazies? (Found this video via Gawker)

Tales of the Anti-Morning Person

Any time I open up a new blog post and spend 20 minutes trying to figure out some topics or a theme for tonight's posting, I'm better off giving in to the temptation that often alludes me: sleep. Since I grown accustomed to being able to function with about 6 hours of sleep, I often wonder how much better I'd function with an extra 30 minutes or hour of sleep. Of course, I always contemplate the issue, and then I sit here at 11pm and I'm as wide awake as I was 12 hours ago. It's alright, one of these days it will catch up to me and I'll be ready to pass out before Letterman comes on. If and when that day ever comes, I'll actually be able to properly function in the morning before 10am.

Basically, my biological clock hasn't fully evolved since graduating college. And now that I'm two years removed from that college lifestyle, I'm not sure when the altered clock will come around. I feel like my body is observing daylight savings time while the rest of the world is running a little ahead. It's funny because I would like to eventually be one of those people who's wide awake, gone for a run, shaved, showered, downed a cup of OJ, some coffee, a bowl of cereal, read the newspaper, and opened a shelter for underprivileged children all before Good Morning America is over. One day, my friends, one day.

Instead, I am the night owl. I sit here watching television, cruising the internet, blogging, and wasting time, simply because it doesn't feel right to hit the sack before midnight. I can't figure out why. Maybe I feel like I'm missing out on a part of my day. Maybe because I haven't regularly retired for the day at such an early hour since I was in middle school, or because going to bed early reminds me of being sick. Kinda like Campbell's soup: won't eat it on normal circumstances because it's something I always eat when I'm under the weather. Call it negative connotations or what have you, the point is understood.

Problem is that once I actually crash, I'm a very heavy sleeper. I need nothing short of heavy duty construction equipment to wake me up. I'm talking "sleep through a tornado and the world could come crumbling down" and I'm still snoozing. I love the snooze button. In fact, I set my cell phone alarm and the cell phone alarm and I still don't wake up. I once set a record for hitting the snooze button every 9 minutes for about 1.5 hours. Luckily, I don't recall actually being late for anything important.

In fact, the one thing that will actually wake me up is the real telephone (landline). Thankfully, the Jessica loves me enough to give me a wake up call about 4 days per week. She used to give me a hard time about it, but I think she's over it after I convinced her that it's a nice opportunity for us to chat for a few minutes each morning. Then the problem is that in one fell swoop, I'll fall back into bed. Bad news indeed.

Don't get me wrong: If I have something important in the morning, i.e. meeting, appointment, other event, then I'll get my act together. I never said I wasn't reliable, but rather that I have "issues" with mornings. In fact, it's nice when I can avoid them altogether, like on the occasion when I can sleep-in on the weekends. That's one of the great feelings in life: knowing that you when you go to sleep on a weekend night knowing that you don't have to wake up for anything important the next morning. Love it.

Now, if I could just draw myself away from this caffeine addiction that I've obtained from not missing a morning cup of coffee for two years now. That's another story for another day. But hey, you have to go with whatever works to give you a kickstart in the AM, especially when you're an anti-morning person like me.

Good night.

Getting the RPR Back on Track

Alright, so I'm trying to get myself back into some kind of routine, after last week's travel, and this weekend's trip to the Philadelphia area. I'm back on track and don't really have any travel plans in the near future, so we can take that as a good thing or bad thing, however you want to look at it.

- In case you didn't know, I'm a big fan of Fred Willard. I came across an article from The New Yorker, where Willard ends up taking a bus tour of Manhattan, and provides his own commentary along the way. If your familiar with Willard and his style of humor, you'll enjoy the article.

- There are two groups of people who will never cease to amaze me with the stupid things they do: Philadelphians and Penn State students. Let's hear it for this student who decided to get drunk and then fall on to the subway tracks. Not the most brilliant thing he could have done.

- So I think it hasn't stopped raining in about 5 days now. This is almost as bad as that stretch in mid-June 2002 when it rained for about 10 straight days. Don't ask me why I remember this.

- I'm in the market for a flat screen television, and I'm beginning to do my research. If anyone has any good resources for me, or any suggestions, please let me know.

- Everyone should welcome my parents to the 21st century, as they just got their digital cable hooked up. I'm jealous though: as a part of their package, they get the NFL Network. Let's be serious, if I spend a majority of television time watching the ESPN family of networks, there's no doubt that I could easily fit in a few more hours per week watching the NFL Network. I could be dangerous with that station...

- Bill Simmons mentioned a few columns ago how enamored he is with YouTube. It really is one of the great websites ever. There, I said it. Think about it... some of the great video clips of all-time are archived on this site, and although you can't find everything you'd want to see, there's enough solid material to keep you busy for hours on end. Simmons determines his YouTube Hall of Fame.

That's all I have for tonight. Back tomorrow...

Back from Rio...

I made it back home in one piece after a great trip to Brazil, and had an awesome time despite the fact that it was for business. Still found plenty of time to have fun with some of the co-workers in the Rio de Janeiro office. I'm still pretty tired from the trip (12+ hours on the plane along with travel time to and from the airports... not cool) but here are a few highlights:

- Watching the Brazil/Australia World Cup match last Sunday may have been one of the most ridiculous scenes I've ever witnessed. The streets cleared out; there was no traffic. Every person parked themselves in front of a TV for 2 hours to watch the game. Think Super Bowl, except everyone in the country is rooting for 1 team, and then multiply that by about 100. Absurd.

- Yes, when you flush the toilet, the water does flow the opposite way. I kid you not.

- Everyone takes their good 'ole sweet time doing things. Kind of like Europe. They have 2 hour lunches, no one moves too fast in restaurants. Rather fascinating. Maybe America ought to slow down a bit.

- When ordering food from a menu written completely in a language you don't know, find something simple (like chicken) and go with that. Otherwise, it could be bad news.

- Service staff in Brazil is smart... they build the gratuity into all bills, so when you pay, you don't realize you are giving them an automatic tip until afterwards.

- There is some word in Portuguese that sounds a lot like "Ross" and every time someone said that word, I kept turning around. I still don't know exactly what the word is or what it means, but I was confused.

- Copacabana Beach is unbelievable.

- Be careful of the caipirinhas - it's a drink that'll knock you on your ass. Go with Chopp de Brahma instead (local beer that happens to be very good)

- I knew what it was like to give the immigrant smile. People talking to me in Portuguese didn't realize I don't know the language, so I just smiled and nodded.

- If you ever go to Rio, you must go to Porcao, one of the finest Brazilian steakhouses around. All you can eat for about R$50 (approx. $25 US) and the meat is absolutely superb. If you've ever been to a Brazilian steakhouse, you know that they'll give you a card with green on one side and red on the other. As long as the card has green facing up, they'll keep bringing the meat to you. Once you flip it over to red, they'll stop... but after a few minutes, will come back to offer you more. Fantastic food.

- The coffee is strong -- really strong. We're talking 'hair on your chest/I feel like I'm drinking potting soil' strong. And then the espresso is another story altogether.

- The views in Rio are gorgeous, the people are very friendly, and the weather (it was the beginning of Winter this week) was still fantastic. Oddly enough, while the northeast US had temperatures into the 90's in the past few days, Rio was experiencing temperatures in the mid-70's with minimal humidity, which was quite pleasant.

I have some pictures that are on the way, so stay tuned once I get ahold of them. At which point, I will gladly share them on the RPR. I'm heading back home to Philadelphia this weekend for Dad's birthday, so I'll be back next week with the regularly scheduled blogging.

A noite boa e tem um fim de semana agradável (In Portuguese, that means "Good night and have a pleasant weekend)

RPR on Hiatus for a week

The RPR is taking a short hiatus while I'm in Brazil, but once I get back from all of the travel and run-around, I'll catch everyone up. By the way, are people still out there? Other than the occasional comment from JMo, I haven't heard a word from anyone else in quite some time. Not sure if the readership is dwindling or people just don't have anything to say.

- Quick link from Julie: Her suggestion is to file this one under 'random acts of stupidity'. After you read the article, you'll agree.

- Let me know if you have any brilliant ideas of how to waste time during a 12 hr flight other than reading, sleeping, and watching the in-flight movie. The last time I was on a flight with a movie, they showed Welcome to Mooseport with Ray Romano and Gene Hackman. I'm gonna go ahead and say that it wasn't Hackman's brightest moment.

Enjoy the weekend, and next week. I'll see ya when I see ya.

Wednesday Night Quick Post

-Yesterday, I posted a link about the great signage sitting in Geno's Steaks in Philadelphia. Let's be serious, Philadelphia will do whatever it can to give itself a blackeye in the minds of the outside world. Of course, sometimes the students at Penn State do the same thing. And sometimes people involved with FEMA spend money on things like football tickets and sex changes. Let's hear it for people making wise decisions in life.

- Top 5 moments in The Hills this evening (in descending order):

5. The look on Lauren's face when she heard the voicemail from Jason.
4. The fact that Lauren took a cross-country flight just to drop off a dress, and then had to come right back.
3. Heidi telling her boss that she didn't realize her job was full-time, and then the boss giving her the 'Are you for real?' look.
2. Heidi's boss telling her that he's hungry, and asks "Heidi, can you go get me a sandwich?"
1. The preview for next week's episode where Heidi's boss says, "We're going to Las Vegas, we're staying in the Palms Casino, oh and by the way, Heidi you can't come because you aren't 21." And the 'Are you for real?' face that immediately followed.

What would we ever do without MTV?

Discrimination in South Philly and Details on Upcoming Business Trip

Couple of items...

- I'm always quick to point out the lovely things that occur in my beloved Philadelphia. Some of the news stories that come out of the City of Brotherly Love are enough to leave you scratching your head. The latest is a sign that was put up at Geno's Steaks (you know, of the famous Geno's vs. Pat's argument -- I have news: they're both ok, but I can name 5 places that are better). The sign reads: "This is AMERICA.... WHEN ORDERING SPEAK ENGLISH". So of course, the next thing you know, the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations is filing a complaint saying that the establishment is displaying a bias, and are trying to force them to take the sign down. I heart Philadelphia!

- I don't talk too much about work on this blog. I make it personal policy to stay away from the work topic because, to be honest, I just don't feel like talking about work when I write up my blog entries in the evenings. However, after just about 2 years of work experience, I'm finally taking a business trip, and a pretty cool one in that respect. My job doesn't really lend itself to travel. I don't meet with any customers or clients; everyone I work with is within the company... that's what you get in Corporate Finance.

However, for a few days next week, I will be traveling for business down to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We have a whole team of people in the Rio office and I have the opportunity to go down there and attend a workshop and dig into a few items that the Latin America team is working on. It'll be a busy few days, but I'm excited. Get down there on Sunday morning, just in time for the Brazil/Australia match in the World Cup. I'm already predicting that this will rank in the Top 5 All-Time Spectacles that I'll witness. To give you an idea, the whole Brazil office cleared out today for the opening match. They all left at 12pm for a soccer game! I'm happy that I get off of work for the national holidays, and they close the office down for an athletic event.

Of course this would be a nice time to have a digital camera, but I don't currently own one. I'm banking on the fact that my boss will have his camera and I'll hopefully get a few pictures on the RPR at some point. Anyway, I'll be down there until Wednesday night of next week before flying back. Let's hear it for a 12 hour plane ride!

That's it for tonight. Back tomorrow with commentary on The Hills.

Andy's Nuggets of Wisdom: Wear a Helmet!

Andy sends in his Nugget of Wisdom this evening with some passion in light the motorcycle accident involving Pittsburgh Steelers' QB, Ben Roethlisberger.

Tonight's nugget: Riding Without a Helmet!!! Just so that everyone knows, I am first and foremost a Steelers fan, but secondly a very anti-motorcycle person. If someone wants to ride a motorcycle, I am cool with that, I'm just never getting on one because I would most certainly wreck it and severly hurt myself. Okay, so now that we have that clear let's talk about what happened today. So Ben Roethlisberger, who has a history of riding a motorcycle without a helmet, got into a pretty bad wreck where he lost teeth, broke his jaw, broke a sinus cavity, cut his head open, and hurt his knees, all which were accomplished when he flew over his handlebars into the windshield of a car. As I see it, and from what other people said, it was not his fault. I am fine with that, but I am not fine with riding without a helmet. This is similar to not using a condom when you nail that sorostitute in your Spanish class. Sure it might feel better or more "natural" but you are exposing yourself to many risks. Since Sue Johansson is still on TV, I will not go into the risks because we should all know them. The helmet, like the condom, will help prevent "damage" to the area it covers, but sometimes it doesn't work as planned. You have to weigh your options. Here are some examples... more stimulation vs. not getting "the clap". How about...the breeze blowing through your hair vs. not eating a windshield of a car and losing some of your teeth! I think one of the worst things about all this is that Pennsylvania and their genius state lawmakers decided to repeal the law that requires motorcycle riders to wear a helmet, as it is currently optional. Let's just tell all the kids in America that condoms should be optional too and see where that leads. Freaking morons. That's my nugget, and I'm sticking to it.

Checking In...

Things have been pretty crazy lately... busy at work, running around all weekend... the usual.

I'll try to blog as much as I'm able to this week, so check back every now and again.

Hills Commentary and Invincible Trailer

Let's just say that The Hills officially receives "Are you for real?" status, and only after an unprecedented 2 episodes! Some comments from this week's installment:

- I first noticed that LC isn't called "LC" anymore -- it's Lauren now. Of course that's always been her name, except everyone on Laguna called her LC. As a result, even though she wants to go by Lauren, I'll continue to use LC. Too bad.

- So LC's boss, the Meryl Streep look-alike, questions how her friends got into the party the previous week, and surprisingly, LC had no response. Let's be serious, if you're getting scolded for something lame, you have to at least stick up for yourself. Come on, don't be a pushover.

- Let's recap: Heidi just can't be for real. She just can't be.

- Wow, LC looks like crap in the morning without the makeup. Didn't see that coming.

- So Heidi quits school to be a bitch at a PR firm? Another highly unimpressive interview, yet since these girls lived the charmed life, they still land the position. Now the question is what will she do to get fired? And how many episodes will it be before she gets herself in trouble at this job? The over/under sits at 2.

In one other note, I found a trailer for Invincible, the story of Vince Papale, who went from a South Philly bartender to a walk-on with the Philadelphia Eagles. Based on a true story, and since it revolves around my beloved Birds, I endorse it completely. Check out the trailer...

Don't worry: We all survived 06/06/06

First off, all of these people who became all up in arms over the fact that today was 06/06/06 ought to relax. Nothing happened. We didn't have the apocalypse. Satan didn't take over the world. In fact, by the time we were partially into our day, Southeast Asia was already into the next day. We survived 09/09/99 and we survived Y2K, so I think we'll all be fine.

- I received these comments from Co-worker Adam: "Just read this morning's RPR...just an FYI, DMX lives in Armonk, NY, which is probably why he was in White Plains....feel free to post that as a follow up". (To elaborate, Armonk is the high society town in Westchester County where I work, and the average home goes for about $1 million. It's all of the aristocrats living there... and DMX!")

- For the fan's of HBO's Entourage, get excited for the Season 3 premiere this Sunday, June 11th at 10pm. In the meantime, if you want to amuse yourself, have an interview with Ari Gold. Try to impress him with your witty answers.

- Been on a Radiohead kick lately, and have re-listened to most of their catalogue in the past few days. Absolutely brilliant work, although I still have a tough time really enjoying the Kid A/Amnesiac material. As mentioned several times on the RPR, OK Computer will always have a spot on my personal Top 10 Favorite Records of All-Time. Go ahead and disagree with me if you want; that's why I said "my personal", which means it's purely my opinion. Meanwhile, Thom Yorke's "not so solo" album, The Eraser, is released on July 11, and recently leaked on the internet. I downloaded some of the songs (for promotional listening use only) but haven't really taken a good listen to them yet. Here's hoping for some new Radiohead material in the near future.

And since I have nothing else to add, I'll just call it a night. Back tomorrow with some commentary from The Hills. (Get excited!)

Andy's Nuggets of Wisdom and Assorted Randomness

Monday night, and everyone knows what that means: Andy's checking in for his weekly nuggets of wisdom. There's a pretty obvious moral to the story this week...

"Tonight's Nugget: So this past weekend was the first annual 'Thrills in the Hills' in Clearfield. It was basically a motorcycle rally in the fairgrounds. They had food stands, displays, leather, and all the normal biker shit. Well they also had a wet t-shirt contest. At first I was really excited at seeing this, but then after seeing the participants, I knew that no good could come from this event. I stayed just until I managed to see about 10 fat girls topless, 2 decent girls topless, and then 2 nasty bitches making out. I was then scarred for life. My mom actually found me curled up in the fetal position in a cold shower crying the next day."

In case you didn't get it, the moral of the story is not to attend wet t-shirt contests at a motorcycle rally. Bad, bad idea.

- File this next story under the "Celebrities that get arrested while in towns not too far from where I currently live" file.... Remember DMX? Yeah the rapper who was made famous by his heavy beats, violent lyrics, and incessant barking, was arrested last week in White Plains, NY. I'm not really sure how he made it up to Westchester County, but he has a pretty good laundry list of felonies and misdemeanors going right now. Let's hear it for late-90's gangsta rap!

- Not too much to report on from the weekend. Didn't do a whole hell of a lot that was exciting, since it ended up being one of those 'run errands, watch TV, sit around and eat Trader Joe's pistachios' kinda weekends. The good news is that after about 8 months, I finally finished "Now I Can Die in Peace" by Bill Simmons (ESPN's The Sports Guy). I know more than I'd ever want to know about the 2004 Boston Red Sox -- and I'm not even a Red Sox fan. For the long time readers out there, you'll remember how excited I was to meet Simmons back in September at the book signing. Well, yeah, it took me forever to get through the book because I never get through books quickly.

You know those people who say, "I read that book in 3 days... I just couldn't put it down.." I'm not one of them. I constantly put them down, and then wait 3 weeks to pick them back up. Regardless, I'm on to my next book: "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. It sounds pretty fascinating, and I hope to feel more intellectual while reading it. It helps supplement all the nonsense that I read about on the internet.

- Here's what I want to know: Who determined that all alarm clocks will have a snooze button that is set to go off 9 minutes later? Secondly, how can I sign up to become involved in such life-altering decisions like the snooze button?

- Don't get me wrong: I enjoy the nice, warm weather. But when I can't figure out if I have a cold or if my allergies are currently in kamikaze mode, then I'm not a happy camper. Let's face it... allergies and a cold have some of the same symptoms. I have the stuffy nose/constant cough combination going on right now. Any ideas?

- With that being said, I'm sure sleep can help. Back tomorrow.

Celebrity Look-a-Like

It pains me to put a Steelers picture on the blog, but take a look at who is standing right above the President: Is that Kanye West? No, no, it's only Joey Porter. (For the record, I still wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley. Even if he was singing "Golddigger" and wearing aviators.) Thank you to Julie for sending this picture along via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 

The Spelling Bee Made it to Prime Time?

Just a few links for your viewing entertainment, and I'll call it a week.

- Follow-up to The Hills commentary: Thanks to the Jessica for passing on this TVGuide.com blog article with their own commentary on the series premiere. Interestingly enough, they brought up many of the same points that I did. Ok, now be honest... which commentary is better: TVGuide.com or the RPR?

- Here's a link to a video of a guy getting slapped in the face 100 times. Not sure why it's amusing, but I just wonder what people were thinking when some guy sets up shop in a bar and has 100 different people slap him across the face. Must have been quite a scene. (By the way, I think YouTube may be one of the all-time great time wasters. The amount of crazy things you find on there are unmeasurable)

- For the music junkies out there like myself, I came across a very cool site - elbo.ws - which is an "MP3 Blog Aggregator". Basically, it's linked to thousands of music blogs and other websites via syndication coding, and updates fairly often with new music postings and mp3's. Search on the top, and it'll bring up a list of various websites that have posted about whatever you're searching for. Let's hear it for technology.

- So the National Spelling Bee made it to Prime Time? I'm surprised by this. In the past, you'd see the Spelling Bee on re-runs on ESPN5 during the middle of the night. Then, in the past few years, it made it to the original ESPN and you'd even see the highlights on SportsCenter. Someone please tell me how spelling is a sport. I'm a pretty decent speller, so does that make me a decent athlete? It's absurd. Any case, without anyone realizing it, the Spelling Bee gained some national attention, and then ABC decides to air in this evening during a prime time slot. I'm not sure what the ratings were like, but I instead opted for a few repear episodes of The Office instead. Seriously, the Spelling Bee on ABC? They must really be struggling for shows now that Desperate and Grey's are in their offseason.

Enjoy the weekend.